Between Blood and Water
by MomoMacchiato
Summary: After being imprisoned for several years by the very kingdom he helped save, Link breaks free with the mission of finding the little girl rumored to now bear the Triforce of Power. With both wanted by forces beyond their recognition and the sting of Zelda's betrayal weighing heavily on Link, they find that the prospect of attaining a peaceful life may not be so simple.
1. Chapter 1--Prison Break

**This is a reformation of the story due to the chapters being too short. I've had this idea floating around for a while, and was inspired by Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables". The inspiration, however, is just that-inspiration, so this is very much a "Legend of Zelda" story. There will probably be semi-graphic sexual content later, for a heads up.****  
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**Constructive criticism is always welcome! **

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"Oy!" The guard's gravelly, baritone voice resounded loudly against the cold stone walls as his sword clanged against the metal bars of the cell. Link started violently awake, his eyes slowly focusing on the portly armored man before him.

"Thought you might wanna know—they're plannin' on finally gettin' rid o' ya next week."

He grinned as he said this, revealing swollen gums haphazardly occupied by teeth of varying colors and sizes. "Beheadin', I think," he continued, scratching his whiskered chin.

"But don't you worry—Ol' Fadi's got a good aim, and sharpens his axe regularly. Shouldn't take 'im more than a few chops to lop that pretty head of those shoulders."

He reached his hand through the iron bars to tap Link's cheek in mock reassurance, coughing in between cackles. The imprisoned man's eyes remained fixed on the guard, his expression unreadable behind the matted, blonde locks of hair curtaining his dirt and blood-streaked face. The guard searched his weary face for any glimpses of fear or anger, but found it a nearly blank slate occupied faintly by what appeared to be sadness.

"Bet yer regrettin' yer lil stint with her Highness, now, ain't ya?" Link's expression remained the same. Finally the man grew bored, and walked off to other cells with a grunt. "I'll be back for ye when Fadi's ready!"

Link slid down into a heap on the molding jail floor. A tightness had developed in the entirety of his torso up to his throat, and he fixed his gaze to his shackled ankles. For nearly nine years he had rotted in this prison, his youth wasting away with the seamless passing of each endless day. And now…

He threw his head back and screamed until his head clouded with the effort. His voice drowned out the ceaseless cacophony of pitiful wails and metallic clanging that normally filled the dungeon, and continued to ring in his ears with ghostly persistence after the scream had dissolved into quiet sobs. His life had been dedicated to this realm—this filthy, unfaithful realm—and he was going to die by its hands.

No.

He had dedicated his life to her, and would die by her hands. He had feared that Hyrule would always be Zelda's first love, and upon hearing his execution orders, he finally knew that. Balling himself up upon the damp, musty-smelling stone floor, Link willed himself into a restless sleep from which he did not anticipate waking.

_ Chosen Hero…though your fate may seem bleak, do not fret. The Triforce of Power resides in the divine child. She is alive, but remains in grave danger as long as it remains in her possession. Find this child, and sequester her away from any who wish to do her harm. Protect her innocence—it is the only thing that allows her to remain untainted from its malevolent forces. Waste no time, Hero! She awaits you in an orphanage just outside of Hyrule's lands._

Link awoke with a start to find the iron shackles once binding his wrists and ankles shattered, leaving behind multi-colored bruises in various stages of healing and agitated cuts. Before him, the battered pictograph of a young baby—at least part Gerudo, judging by her rich mahogany complexion—lay on the ground, with "Vera" written in the bottom left-hand corner. A man-sized hole had been mysteriously cut into the rusted bars that barricaded him in his cell, giving him a clear view of the corridor that would lead him to his freedom.

"Vera…" The child's name spoken aloud incited an excited, anxious buzz within him. Unwanted tears burned his eyes and nose as he traced the outline of the baby's plump face with a dirt and blood-encrusted finger. Wiping his eyes, Link tucked the pictograph into his tattered shirt. He had already wasted nearly nine years in this god-forsaken dungeon; he saw no reason to linger a second longer.

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"Oof!" Vera resisted the urge to cry as searing pain shot up her elbow upon impact with the dirt floor."Get up, you little bitch. You thought you were being funny? Clever, soiling my brand-new dress? The one I paid two thousand rupees for?"

The headmistress held in her plump hand what had once been a very fine violet dress, dripping wet and stained with an odd mixture of flour, indigo, and horse shit.

"I give you one simple thing to do—laundry—and you purposely go through my things and ruin my dress?" Her face's normally mottled hue deepened until it became a violent shade of crimson, her voice rising in tandem with the color change.

Vera considered attempting to explain that it was in fact Ales, the headmistress's niece, who had been responsible for the dress's condition, but found it difficult to summon anything above a distressed squeak from her tightening throat. She also suspected that her accusation would be met hostilely, and would subject her to further abuse by both the headmistress and Ales. "I-I'm sorry Madam…" Vera's lip trembled as she uttered her meek apology. At this, the headmistress's nostrils flared.

"You're sorry?!" She roared, seemingly further enraged by the girl's attempt to make amends. "You're not sorry yet, but you sure as hell will be!" Grabbing Vera by one choppy copper pigtail, she yanked her towards the kitchen. Vera had no choice but to do her best to keep up, pressing her small hands against her scalp to minimize the pain from having her hair pulled.

After shoving open the kitchen door, Vera found herself once again knocked to the fading tile floor.

"Aaaalleeesss!"

Vera pursed her lips together to prevent her face from betraying the revulsion that gurgled up inside of her as the woman's fleshy chin jiggled as if it were filled with gelatin. Ales hurriedly burst into the kitchen, her neatly pleated mouse-brown braids swinging behind her.

"Yes, Aunty?"

"Vera thought it would be cute to ruin Aunty's new dress. You need to show her that that is not okay at all."

"Yes Aunty." Ales made little effort to contain the smile that surfaced across her pinched features.

"Good." The Headmistress threw one last glare at Vera before walking heavily back to the parlor room. "I don't want her getting any more strokes of geniuses like that again. Next time, she won't come out of it the same."

Vera felt a pang in the pit of her stomach. She doubted that they would kill her—they got good money from the Royal Family to keep her, and every year or so a representative from Castle Town would drop by to ensure she was still in their care. Of course, it mattered little in what condition she appeared in—either emotionally or physically—but as long as she was breathing, the orphanage (well, the Headmistress, really) would continue to benefit from her presence. She remembered Palo, the feisty little Sheikah (at least he looked Sheikah), who had attempted to escape one evening when the Headmistress had been away at some sort of dinner event in Castle Town. Ales had taken notice, and a few days after informing her aunt of his disappearance, Vera found him bound to his bed, his legs brutally broken mid-calf. He had died of infections later that year, and the Headmistress made a big show for the social worker, tears smearing her garish makeup and rendering her face unrecognizable.

"What should we do with you?" Ales tapped one of her dimples with a bony finger, her grin plainly displaying her pleasure. The fourteen year old girl was terrifying in her capacity for cruelty. The Headmistress had been forced to forbid her niece from taking possession of any small animals, as she had grown tired of cleaning up their mangled bodies after Ales's "experiments". She had also begged to watch Palo's punishment—his screams and the sound of crunching bones continued to haunt Vera—and had come out grinning.

"Oh!"

Vera's eyes widened as the older girl's gaze turned to the glowing coals in the burner.

"I think I know!"

Vera screamed as the smoldering coal hissed against her skin.

"Hold still!" Ales' voice was laced with annoyance as the struggled to hold the girl with one hand and properly wield the poker with the other. Panicked and driven by pain, Vera flung herself against Ales, knocking her back against the hard tile floor. Ales shrieked as the piece of coal she had been wielding was dislodged from the poker and fell into her lap, searing through her grey starched dress. Vera wasted no time in sprinting upstairs to her room and barricading the heavy wooden door with her dresser. Her chest heaved as the adrenaline slowly drained, leaving behind the intensifying stinging of her burn. Sucking in her breath, Vera clutched her upper arm just below the burn in an attempt to take the edge of the pain. By now, it had blistered in to an angry, damp wound. Hot tears blurred her vision and prickled her nose.

This had been her life since she arrived at the orphanage three years ago. Before that, she had lived in an austere monastery in Miridia, a neighboring kingdom to Hyrule. Though provisions were low and life was simple, the clergy responsible for the misplaced and orphaned children were kind and patient. The children had been taught to read and write, as well as do simple arithmetic. Vera had a voracious appetite for learning, and had read all about the world's various countries and provinces—their history, their cultures, their people. She had learned that she herself was Gerudo—or at least half, as a few of her features didn't quite seem to match the description of a typical one—and figured that she must have either come from the desert or one of the various tropical islands that peppered the Great Sea. As she had appeared as an infant at the monastery's steps with only a note bearing her name, though, she couldn't know for sure. Vera had been happy for the most part, until the monastery was raided by Hylian forces for the worship of deities other than Din, Farore, and Nayru. Most of the clergy were either imprisoned or slaughtered, and by some cruel twist of fate Vera found herself at the mercy of the Headmistress (she knew her by no other name) and her psychopath niece Ales.

Vera crawled under the covers, still clutching her arm. The burn sent throbbing tendrils of pain up to her shoulder, but at least it had become bearable. Her nose was now congested from crying, and she couldn't help but blubber softly through her mouth. She fantasized about running away, free from the tyranny of the orphanage, but reality tore the reverie apart. If she wasn't killed or captured by the various monsters and soldiers that roamed the outside world, she'd most certainly starve to death, lacking any necessary skills to survive on her own. By abandoning her, her mother had doomed Vera to the fate of an unwanted orphan: a short and brutish life. She wasn't the first child to suffer this destiny, nor would she be the last.


	2. Chapter 2--The Arrival

Link held up the map Impa had drawn him. The older woman had chosen to leave the castle for her house in Kakariko village upon Princess Zelda's betrothal to Prince Jadian of Arania, a kingdom of short-eared humans with no magical abilities. Impa didn't care for the new king, who seemed adamant on applying Arania's often draconian and sexist ideals upon his new Kingdom. Impa, in addition to being the Sage of Shadow , once held a powerful position on the Royal counsel under King Harkinian and his daughter's rule. After the coronation of Jadian, however, she had been relegated to simple wet nurse to his and Zelda's now teenaged sons. Zelda had relinquished most of her power as Queen as part of the marriage agreement, and as such had little say as to her husband's decisions. Even so, Impa was shocked at the ease with which Zelda had allowed Link to be arrested. She loved him—or so Impa had thought—and it was because of this that Jadian had sought to eliminate him. The new Queen had not been an innocent victim of Link's charges, but willingly played the part to avoid any further turmoil. When Impa heard of the execution orders, however, a wave of disgust washed over her. She had practically raised Zelda as her own daughter, but the woman's actions since coronation made her a stranger. It was an unbelievably welcome surprise when Link appeared on her doorstep, beaten, dirty, and ragged, asking to be let in. Impa didn't bother to question the nature of his escape. She knew that it was nothing short of divine will, and wordlessly let him in. She provided him with a much-needed bath and meal and other provisions she knew he would need—his old green tunic, a sword, and a map to Vera's location.

Surveying the slightly run-down mansion, he clicked his tongue in recognition. The building was two stories tall, with a grand but poorly tended courtyard. It had once belonged to some aristocratic family from Miridia, but the Hylian army made short work of them and re-appropriated it as an orphanage when the territory had been absorbed under Hylian jurisdiction. The current owners took the property for granted, it seemed, as the once finely painted mortar was cracked and crumbling in some areas, and vines had rooted themselves against the walls in serpentine tendrils. Link knocked on the finely carved wooden door, nervously straightening out imaginary creases in his tunic.

"Coming!" A woman's voice sang shrilly as loud footsteps thumped rhythmically towards him.

"How may I help you, dear?"

The woman appeared to be in her late thirties to early forties and wore an expensive-looking, ruby colored dress that did little to conceal her rotund figure. Link felt his face grow hot as he attempted to keep his eyes on her heavily powdered face and away from the fleshy, melon-like breasts that seemed to fight her dress's containment.

"I am here for Vera," he replied, his soft voice trembling slightly at the child's name.

The woman's jovial expression drained quickly from her face.

"Oh? And what business do you have with the girl?"

Link glanced at the ground before meeting the woman's suspicious regard, wringing his gauntleted hands.

"I'm her father."

Vera's heart leaped to her throat as she heard the man's words. She had watched the exchange from her bedroom window, which hovered over the front door. She had never seen him before. He was obviously Hylian, judging by his small stature and large, pointed ears. He was cloaked in a brilliantly green tunic which contrasted strangely with the wild locks of blonde hair that fell across his face. Was he telling the truth? If he was, why now, after all of these years, would he choose to find her? Either way, it didn't matter. He was here to take her away, and she almost didn't care where to. Vera considered bolting downstairs to present herself to the man, but feared revealing herself to the Headmistress, who surely would have heard Ales' complaints of having been burnt by Vera's efforts to escape punishment.

"Her father?" She heard the Headmistress laugh, but not in a good-natured way. "You're telling me that after the three years that we've had the little brat, and the _eight_ years she spent in another orphanage before that, you, her 'father', have just magically appeared to whisk her away?"

The man shifted uncomfortably and didn't respond.

"_Bullshit!_" She snarled, and must have sprayed him with a few drops of spittle, because he recoiled and wiped his cheek with the back of his hand.

"Even so, it doesn't change the fact that I wish to take responsibility of the child. I ask that you pass her unto my care immediately, and I will leave you be with no trouble."

He stood erect as he spoke, his face firm and his voice chillingly soft. He was subtly beginning to show the waning of his patience. The Headmistress cackled bitterly in response.

"Sir, do you understand that this child, as an officially recognized Gerudo, is a valuable asset to my establishment? The pension I get to support her is twice that of any Aranian child, or Miridian child, or even Hylian child. Unless you want to repay me to make up for the loss, the little bitch ain't goin' _anywhere_. "

At this, Vera threw aside her make shift barricade and flew down the stairs to the front door. Both adults turned to face her, one with a furious scowl slapped across her bloated face, the other with wide eyes and a subtle smile.

"You can't keep me here!" she screamed, her small brown fists balled up tightly.

The Headmistress's thin upper lip quivered under widely flared nostrils.

"Vera."

Vera directed her sight to the man, who was otherwise attractive barring a few cuts and bruises. He gave her a half-smile, revealing a dimple on his claw-marked cheek, and held out his hand. His bottom lip, already naturally quite full, was further swollen and split.

Vera approached him, her greenish amber eyes locked onto his bruised blue ones.

"No you don't!"

The Headmistress seized Vera's arm, her over-grown nails digging into the fresh burn. Vera shrieked in pain and shock, struggling against the woman's meaty hand. Vera heard a metallic zing, like the unsheathing of a blade, and felt the Headmistress freeze. Fear had paralyzed her face, and her wide eyes were locked onto the sword pressed precariously close to her throat.

"Let her go."

The man's voice was calm and confident, as was his gaze, which was set unwaveringly at the Headmistress. Her small, dark eyes flicked from the sword to his face and back again before she reluctantly loosened her grip, allowing the little girl to squirm free. Trembling, Vera edged her way toward the man's free, outstretched hand, which he promptly wrapped protectively around her. He backed away with her, his sword still pointed towards the woman's throat.

"You can tell Castle Town that she was killed by a moblin or something of the sort," he said as he slowly increased the distance between them. "I'm sure you'll get a handsome pension for her death."


	3. Chapter 3--Revelation

**Alright, so I've heard that the chapters were too short (which, due to the strange formatting of this site, I certainly agree), so I made this one much longer. I'll try to fix the earlier chapters so that they'll be less of them but they'll be longer, but I can't make any promises.**

**You'll see that this chapter is where things start kicking, and suggests that there will most likely be some sexual explicitness later on (hence the M rating), so you have been forewarned. **

**Don't be afraid to give constructive criticism! It is thanks to a review that I realized that the chapters were too short. I have thick skin, and as long as it's not flaming I am open to your views!**

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"You must be hungry."

Vera hesitated before nodding. She was indeed extremely hungry, as she hadn't eaten anything since that morning, but felt self-conscious about the man's kindness. She hadn't said much on the trip, opting instead to concentrate on avoiding falling off of the horse.

_"I am her father."_

The man's words still rang in her head, and the combination of the discomfort from the bouncy ride and hunger pains were all that were keeping her from asking him if it were true. He had introduced himself to her as "Link"—just "Link". Not "your dad" or "Father". This in itself had sunk her hopes, but she wouldn't know for sure until she asked.

Twilight had spread itself across the horizon like paint accidentally spilled on a dirty canvas by the time they reached an inn, which was nestled amongst neatly tended fauna. It was situated on the outskirts of a village whose name escaped Vera, and the artificial pond populated with various kinds of brightly colored fish coupled with its quaint, cottage-like appearance, partially concealed by the surrounding vegetation, gave it the appearance of a nicely kept secret. The interior was just as enchanting. Lanterns made of bits of colored glass hung at varying heights from the wood-beamed ceiling, casting an ethereal glow on everything inside, and a large aquarium housing more pastel fish took up nearly an entire wall.

Link chuckled to himself at the child's bewildered expression, whose large, almost hazel eyes seemed to struggle to take in the inn's wonders.

"May I help you?"

A woman with short, mysteriously dyed blue hair leaned provocatively against the counter, which not-so-subtly pushed her cleavage up towards her chin. Link struggled to keep his eyes on her neatly made-up face. "Y-yes, actually…if you have any rooms available, we'd much appreciate it."

Link gave a small, polite smile, and couldn't help noticing the way the woman's glossy, plump lips parted slightly to return it. He hadn't felt the body of another person in the eight or nine years he had been imprisoned unless it was to receive punishment, and though he had never been one to be dictated by primal desires, the extended time of being forcibly deprived of fulfilling them had left him a slightly different man

"Of course I do!" She chirped, playfully dangling the room keys in front of Link's face. "Dinner will be served around eight. It's roasted pheasant and potatoes, and will be brought to the room." She dropped the keys into the palm of his hand, leaning in to push her breasts further against the counter until Link feared that they would completely pop out of her dangerously low vest. He did his best to ignore the tingling sensation that he suspected was the beginning of an erection and nodded stiffly.

"That sounds lovely. Thank you."

Vera did her best not to roll her eyes at the exchange she was witnessing. The innkeeper was shamelessly doing her best to seduce Link, and Link was quite visually struggling to deny her advances. Vera suspected that he would probably oblige to her booty call if she weren't there, and internally shook her head; she really hoped that she wasn't travelling around with a lecher.

Lecher or not, Vera could do little to contain the electric buzz of elation that overcame her when they walked into their room. They were on the second floor, and were thus treated to a vaulted ceiling with similar wooden accents that decorated the rest of the inn. Purple and blue glass lanterns were hung from the ceiling, and the biggest fireplace she had ever seen crackled soothingly in the far end of the room. Vera jumped on her bed, which was twice as big and twice as comfy as the thin straw mattress she usually slept on at the orphanage, and rolled around like a freshly bathed puppy in a puddle of mud, tangling herself up in a nest of downy covers.

"My goodness, this is the most animated I've seen you since the orphanage!" Link laughed gently, joining her to sit on the edge of her bed. Vera stopped rolling, clutching her pillow and looking up at him through an orange spray of knotted hair.

"I'm really happy," she said her voice trembling with the weight of her thoughts.

"Well, I'm glad!" Link said, gathering her up in his lap, blankets and all. "I'm really happy, too."

Vera felt the sting of hot tears in her eyes and let him hold her against his chest, which brought on an onslaught of sobs. She couldn't explain why she was crying, and he didn't bother to ask. He just held her wordlessly, gently stroking her hair while her small body heaved against his chest. Eventually her sobs softened to sniffles, and then to quiet, deep breathing. She felt Link lift up her sleeve to reveal her burn. He 'tisked' softly, tenderly running his fingers around the wound. "They hurt you a lot, didn't they?" he asked faintly, as if to himself. He caught Vera's stare, now directed at his now bare wrists, which were marred with ugly bruises and scars from the years of having been shacked. He smiled down at her sadly.

"They hurt me a lot, too."

A small spark of realization hit Vera. He had been imprisoned! Maybe that's why he couldn't come for her, and why she had ended up in an orphanage! With an abrupt ferocity, Vera looked up at him.

"Are you my father?" she demanded almost violently, jumping out of his lap to face him.

Link looked taken aback, his ghost-blue eyes wide with shock.

"If…if that's the way you'd like to think of me…" he said carefully.

Disappointment hit her harder than she expected it would, and her expression turned sour.

"So you're not." She said flatly, her eyes downcast to avoid revealing the extent of her crestfallen appearance. "Well, who are you, then? How do you know who I am, and why did you come after me?"

Link sucked in his breath and let it out slowly in an attempt to buy enough time to think of an adequate answer.

"Look, Vera…I can't tell you everything right now, but I can tell you this: you possess a very rare and dangerous artifact. This puts you in danger of not only the artifact itself, but those who wish to obtain it. I have one myself, though mine is slightly different. Queen Zelda of Hyrule has the third. I am here to protect you from these dangers."

Vera narrowed her eyes in confusion. "Artifact? I don't have any artifact…"

Link held out his hand. "Your left hand, please," he said, his voice low. Vera tentatively offered him her left hand, over which he clasped his other hand and bowed his head. After a few moments, a searing sensation on top of her hand began to grow, though it was different from the burn she felt from the burning piece of coal. Link slowly removed his hands from hers, and a painful shock jolted her chest when she saw the outline of a strange triangular mark, the bottom right of which was producing an otherworldly golden glow.

"That is the Triforce of Power," Link explained, his voice a low hum. The light emanating from the back of her hand cast almost malicious shadows across his effeminate face, giving further dimension to the gravity of his words. "You'd do well to fear it."


	4. Chapter 4

**This chapter is way longer than previous ones, which I will make a trend. Let me know how you guys are feeling about how the story is progressing and any other feedback. It's always welcome, so don't be shy!**

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Zelda leaned against the cold stone wall of her bedroom, absent-mindedly watching her two boys bat each other with their wooden swords. She had just heard the news of Link's disappearance, and couldn't help but smile to herself. The goddesses wouldn't let him succumb to such an unceremonious demise. She hadn't wanted him imprisoned in the first place, much less _executed_, but her husband had remained steadfast on the matter. It made little difference whether he had been the kingdom's savior in another life; Link had taken her chastity (really, she had offered it to him and he had obliged, but this made no difference to Jadian), and he had to be severely punished for it.

"Ow, Rylan, that _hurt!"_

"Shut up JJ, you're just being a freakin' baby,"

Zelda grimaced as she heard the all-too-familiar sound of little Jadian's wailing.

"_Marianaaa!"_ Rylan screamed the young nursemaid's name until his scratchy voice became frayed.

"C-coming, boys!" Mariana scurried out to the courtyard, girlish face flushed and heeled feet tripping periodically over the dirtied hem of her dress.

Zelda left the window for the courtyard to find Mariana struggling with keeping a thrashing JJ still enough to properly observe the scratch on his arm. Upon seeing his mother, JJ broke free of the young woman's feeble grip and ran towards her, angry tears streaming down his plump, grass-stained cheeks.

"R-Rylan, he-he hit me with the sword really h-hard and it h-hurt and then he screamed at me to stop being a babyyy," the eight-year-old whined in between tearful huffs, elongating the last word as he broke out into wails again.

Zelda sighed inwardly. "Sweetie, your brother didn't mean to. If you're going to cry every time you get hit, then maybe you shouldn't be playing this game."

This threw JJ into hysterics, causing the boy to scream complaints and protests rendered unintelligible by the onslaught of blubbering tears. Zelda pressed two fingers to the bridge of her nose and exhaled slowly, thinking guiltily of how much simpler life had been before she had given birth.

"Rylan…"

Her fourteen year old son launched into protests of his own before his mother could finish. "_What_, mom, I didn't even _do_ anything! He's just being a big pussy, that's all!"

"Rylan!"

"Well, it's true!"

"N—"

Zelda spoke up over JJ, who had momentarily stopped crying in order to argue with his brother about his existence as a pussy.

"There will be no more of that language, Rylan, do you understand me? JJ, you'll be fine. Now the both of you—wash up and get dressed for dinner. Your father will be expecting the both of you to be looking like little noblemen and at the dining hall at seven this evening. Mariana, if you will please prepare the boys' baths?" Zelda lifted her chin at the girl, who nodded nervously and herded the boys into the castle.

Zelda sighed, plopping down on a marble bench. Slipping off her heels, she traced ripples in the clear artificial pond before her with her feet, which were marked by pink indentations from the rigid shoes. Her thoughts wandered back to Link. It had been nearly thirteen years since they had last seen each other, but she still found herself seeing the ghost of his appearance every now and then. Sometimes, it would be in the blonde-haired kitchen hand, or the bright-eyed young scribe. Her heart would give a painful leap, and she'd reach out a gloved hand with the intention of grabbing his shoulder and throwing herself against his chest, but just as his name would escape her throat, the illusion would shatter. It would always be just a kitchen hand or scribe, and the blunt twinge of disappointment would return.

Link and Vera had left the inn early that morning, hoping to make the most progress before the general public would be most active. Vera's initial shyness had all but melted away, leaving no filter in place to curb the barrage of questions she had in store for her adult companion. He had already done his best to explain the idea of the Triforce, and had flat out told her that he had no idea why she had a piece of it, but the little girl was an infinitely deep fountain of curiosity. Her appetite for knowledge was insatiable—which was absolutely fine with Link. He just wished that he wasn't her only option for satisfying it.

"So where are we going?" she asked, taking a break from some story she had been rambling on about regarding a puppy stealing shoes from a mermaid, and subsequently being turned into a kitten as punishment.

"Well, it looks like we're going to have to stop at Castle Town…I forgot we'd need to buy a tent and a few travelling supplies, seeing as we won't always have the luxury of staying in an inn."

"Castle Town?" her eyes lit up. She had never been to Castle Town.

"Yyeeess. It's really risky for me, to be honest, seeing as I'm a wanted man and all, so unfortunately there will be no room for exploring. Though, really, it's not that big of a deal anyway. You see one part of it, you see it all. It's like that."

Vera shrugged, her expression remaining enthusiastic. Seeing one part of Castle Town was enough for her, who before the other day had scarcely seen beyond the courtyard of the orphanage.

Inside Castle Town, a cacophony of children squealing, price bargaining, insulting, and various animals squawking and howling pummeled Vera's ears so hard she could scarcely gather her thoughts. Hylians, ranging from the ragged and unwashed to the refined and elegant, were scattered throughout the main market square, feverishly going about their daily rituals. Vera surveyed her bustling surroundings in awe, first focusing on a group of people waving rupees above their heads and shouting prices around a wooden stand that was mostly obscured from her view. Her eyes then swung to a young girl, perhaps a few years younger than herself, scampering about in an attempt to gather chickens in the skirt of her dress, which she had fashioned into a makeshift hammock. She seemed incapable of holding more than three or four at a time, as each time she bent over slightly to scoop up another bird, one would hop out of her dress and run in frantic circles around her.

"Vera!"

Her breath leapt to her throat at the sudden mention of her name and the shock of a heavy hand on her shoulder.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Link said, smiling sheepishly at the girl's frightened hazel stare. "I'm going to get us a tent and some food for the road, okay? Please stay here, and don't talk to_ anyone_. If someone tries to ask your name or show you something, just pretend like you can't hear, right?"

Vera nodded, her heightened heartbeat still slowing down to normal. "Okay."

"I'll be right back!" He tapped her chin affectionately with the tip of his fingers and sprinted off, the crowd swallowing him in seconds.

Sighing, the girl leaned against a nearby wall, observing a poster hung next to her. She couldn't read the text, as it was in the traditional Hylian geometric letters, but she wasn't sure that it'd be of any interest to her, as a marginally attractive woman provocatively posed, her large breasts bare and her legs positioned to leave little to the imagination, took up the majority of the poster.

This was the last thing she remembered seeing before a blunt force across the side of her face sent ripples of pain throughout her head. She hit the cobblestone ground hard, her breath forced out of her lungs by the impact.

"Nice shoes!" she heard a young male voice say semi-mockingly, followed by a chorus of snickering. She felt several pairs of hands grab her feet, and a rush of cold air as they were suddenly exposed to the outside breeze.

"_Hey!" _she screamed, realizing what had just happened. "Give them back!"

A small, motley gang of boys, their ages ranging from a little younger than her to about fourteen or fifteen, were passing around her shoes, which had been hand-me-downs of moderate quality of Ales, mocking her as they made their escape. Vera kept her eyes out for the youngest, who had bright orange hair and held one of her slippers. Forcing herself up despite her head and stomach still aching, she broke into a run after him, weaving deftly through the suffocating labyrinth of people. Though her bare feet slapped painfully against the hard ground, and small pebbles every so often burrowed themselves into her soles, her focus remained steadfast on the boy, who slipped with ease through the crowd and alleyways, never seeming to tire out.

Finally, they hit a dead end, and the boy spun around to face her, small chest heaving and his pale face flushed as vibrant of a red as his hair.

"Give…back…" Vera wheezed, her lungs burning with the lack of oxygen. She staggered towards him, one hand on her knee and the other outstretched. Fear melted from boy's large, deer-like eyes and was replaced by something more sinister, and it took Vera a minute to see in her peripheral that his gang had returned, though their numbers had more than tripled.

Her stomach dropped as she slowly turned her head to take in the situation. About fifteen young boys surrounded her, some as old as sixteen or seventeen, with many brandishing gleaming daggers. Vera's breath rattled nervously in her chest, and she silently cursed herself for not listening to Link. She took a couple of steps back, but the group of boys matched the distance, taking a few steps towards her. Their dirty faces were twisted into hungry smirks, and a few of the older ones continued to advance towards her, circling around her while spinning their daggers threateningly in their hands.

"Well…looks like we got ourselves a little Gerudo," one snickered, a boy of about sixteen whose brown hair hung in shaggy locks about his shoulders. His lean, angular face broke out into a malicious smile, and he licked his lips while eying her in a way that made her stomach curl in disgust. She wanted to shout something brave-sounding and cool, to at least be able to bluff that she wasn't nearly as scared as she actually was, but she could only muster a weak whimper.

Suddenly, the boy pounced, knocking her on her back. He pinned her legs to the ground with his own and held her wrists in one of his hands against the dagger, jacking her arms up helplessly over her head. He trailed the other hand down her neck and slipped it underneath her shirt, feeling around her chest for any sign of cleavage.

"You sure you're not just a boy who dresses like a chick for shits and giggles?" he asked mockingly, his putrid breath crawling down her throat. A dark expression lit up behind his eyes. "Only one way to find out," he grinned, allowing his hand to travel further down until it reached the waistband of her pants.

"Stop!" she shrieked, thrashing against him in an attempt to keep his hand from going any further. His only reaction was to laugh, amused at her meek defense. His hand continued to burrow under her waistband—

-until he was knocked off of her with startling force. His grip was ripped off of her wrists, his dagger inadvertently slicing the palm of her hand. The boy rolled onto his hands and knees, clutching his ribs. He barely had enough time to look up before the hilt of a sword was rammed into his face, breaking his nose with a sickening crunch and causing a spectacular spray of blood to gush from the impact. The younger members of the surrounding gang backed up, no longer wanting to take part, their faces slack with shock. The older, bolder ones advanced, tightly gripping their daggers in trembling fists.

Vera sat up on her knees, cradling her bleeding hand, to see Link crouched defensively in front of her, his sword drawn and poised, ready to strike in any needed moment. His back arched slightly at her movement, but he didn't look back at her, his eyes locked on the three or four teenagers who shifted on their feet nervously, their weapons held out in front of them.

Two of them exchanged nervous glances at each other then charged him, splitting in opposite directions in an attempt to flank him. Link straightened out his sword, which began to glow with a fiery yellow light, suddenly bursting into a powerful blue flame. Vera scrambled to her feet and flattened herself against the far wall, numb with shock at what she was witnessing. With a furious cry, he swung the sword in a wide circle, his whole body following suit with dance-like grace. Though his blade did not touch his attacker's body, blood blossomed in diagonal gashes from their torsos as the blue flame ripped across their chests, throwing them back against the wall where they fell into convulsing heaps, eyes wide and frozen with fear and agony.

Link faltered, the attack obviously having had taken a physical toll, the bridge of his nose still creased into a feral snarl. The two wounded teenagers' friends rushed to them in vain attempts to nurse them to health, stealing frightened glances at the man responsible for their wounds. They flinched as Link sheathed his sword and reached into a pouch.

"Here." He said flatly, rolling a bottle of a viscous red liquid towards them, where it stopped at the feet of one of the wounded boys. "Have them each drink half of it. It will allow them to heal enough that they'll live." The boys nodded wordlessly, picking up the bottle and slinking away into the shadows, dragging their half-conscious friends. After they all disappeared, Link turned to Vera, who remained curled in a defensive little ball. Her hand was bleeding extensively now, the blood making little crimson rivulets around her wrists and between her fingers like satin ribbons. She avoided his eyes, focusing her own on her bare, dirty feet. Her bottom lip trembled, and she stifled sniffles as she attempted to hold back burgeoning tears. Link knelt down to meet her at face level, straining his neck to look at her.

"Are you okay?" he asked calmly. Vera nodded without looking up at him, trying to read into any veiled anger in his voice. His eyes travelled down to her bleeding hand.

"Can I see?"

His voice was soft and kind, but not necessarily transparent. If she had learned anything about this man during the short time they had spent together, it was that he was a master at hiding his emotional state of being. Vera slowly extended her cut hand, gradually looking up to meet his face. He furrowed his eyebrows as he examined the gash, the corners of his mouth pulling down into a concerned frown. He looked up at her suddenly.

"This is…the only way that they hurt you, right?" his voice dragged uncomfortably as he said it, and she saw a unique expression of fear flash across his face.

"Y-yeah…you came before they could do anything else…" her voice trailed off, and the sick feeling crept its way back up her throat.

Link nodded, a look of relief loosening up his boyish features slightly. "Good." He fell silent for a moment, pulling out a roll of bandages to wrap up her wounded hand.

"I'm not going to yell at you, you know," he said in a hushed voice, his eyes not leaving her hand as he continued to dress her wound.

Vera felt a pang of guilt mixed with a bit of relief. "I'm really sorry, Link. I-I was waiting for you by the wall where you left me at, and then those boys came and—"

"It doesn't matter. I was stupid to leave a little girl like you alone in a place like this, and I'm sure that you would have stayed put if they'd have left you alone. The important thing is that you're relatively unharmed. Besides, I think you've more than learned your lesson today."

"They stole my shoes," she said weakly.

"Then I'll get you new ones. That's hardly a reason to go running stupidly after them. Would a pair of shoes be worth it if they had—" Link stopped himself before his temper escalated further, causing him to say something that he would regret. The little girl looked at him with fearful large, cat-green eyes, and he drew his breath, exhaling slowly through his nose.

"Like I said, it doesn't matter. It's over, it was scary, but you're okay. Let's both forget about what happened and get out of here." His words were meant to reassure himself as much as Vera.

The pair didn't say much to each other for the rest of that day. They set up camp in a peaceful looking area of Hyrule field, and having eaten in silence, crawled into the spacious tent that Link had stolen in Castle Town(unbeknownst to Vera). Vera wrapped herself up in the warm blankets and looked up into the blackness that encompassed the tent. In the corner of her eye, she could see the spectral silhouette of Link, whose back appeared to be turned to her. Her stomach tightened. She wasn't quite sure what to think of him. He had showed her more kindness in the two days than she had experienced in the three or so years that she had stayed with the Headmistress at the orphanage, but something was unsettling about him. He knew a lot more about her than he was telling her, and he had told her almost nothing of himself, except that he had "escaped" from the Hylian dungeons, and that he actually wasn't her father. Every gesture, facial expression (or lack therof), and sentence gave rise to more questions, and Vera found herself asking herself more and more often who this man was, and what he wanted with her.


	5. Chapter 5

**So! Here is chapter 5. Like Sven and other reviewers said, I am making the chapters much longer, hence the wait. I want to thank those of you who took the time to review, it is much appreciated and always welcome. There is some rather explicit sex at the end of this chapter, so you have been forewarned! **

* * *

_Child of the Desert…_

The words were spoken in a beast-like whisper, echoing with an other-worldly growl. Vera got up and looked around, alarmed to find that she was no longer in the tent, but instead floating aimlessly in an abysmal vacuum of sorts.

_The man who travels with you-he who possesses the Triforce of Courage- is not to be trusted._

The shock of the disembodied words, which swirled around her unsettlingly, caused her to gasp.

_ As the Guardian of the Triforce of Power, you pose a direct threat to him. It is your destiny to be the savior of your people, who have been wrongly persecuted by the blood-thirsty race that man is part of. I was once the Guardian of Power, but was defeated by that very man—just a boy then—and banished to this Hell in which I now reside. You are my successor, and as such, only you can free me from this eternal prison and save our glorious tribe. We are doomed without your intervention. _

A dark face flashed before Vera's eyes too quickly for her to see any details, but his eyes would haunt her memories for years to come. A wide, jagged smile was cut almost from ear to ear, stretching the already thin layer of sickly greenish skin taut across sharp cheek-bones. The depressions in his face were occupied not by human eyes, but by an ethereal, yellowish glow, which were almost transparent. They were not the eyes of a man, but those of an angry, supernatural entity—those of a demon.

Vera jolted awake, her skin covered in a thin sheet of slick perspiration. Her entire body shook, and her breath was ragged. The after-image of the face, more terrifying and unnatural than anything she had thus far seen, remained burned in her retinas, the empty, malevolent eyes fixed on her each time she blinked.

Link sensed Vera's sudden movements and shot up. "What's the matter? What is it?" His voice was unusually panicked, and a wild look possessed his thickly-lashed eyes.

She tried to shake her head, but the specter's face still flashed before her, his chilling laughter continuing to resonate through her ears, and she clutched a fistful of her rusty, strawberry blonde hair. "Make it _stop!"_ she screamed, shutting her eyes tightly. Link noticed that her left hand glowed angrily with an orange- golden light.

_"Shit!"_ he hissed, his fears having been confirmed. Leaping in front of the agonized girl, Link grabbed her head in both of his hands and pressed his forehead to hers.

"Vera, _listen to me._ Don't listen to him. He's found a way to you, and you have to deny him. Look at me. Vera, _look at me!"_

The child's eyes shot open and met the man's hypnotic stare. A strange, cooling sensation rushed through her as the Hylian's ghostly-blue eyes bore into her own, slowly erasing the nightmarish image from her mind and fading the eerie laughter. Her breathing slowed and calmness returned, signaling Link to relinquish his grip on her and sit back, his chest rising and falling visibly. Sweat caused his wild hair to cling to his face, and Vera couldn't help but notice how much older he looked in that moment than he normally did. Dark shadows lined his large eyes and swept under his cheek bones, causing him to appear tired and under-fed. He had successfully suppressed her piece of the Triforce's attempt to surface, and she had no idea what kind of effect that had on his body. He had already reached his early thirties, and in a world that required so much of him—physically and spiritually—he was quickly passing his prime.

"What did you see?" His voice was weak, and he had shut his eyes, seemingly too tired to keep them open.

Vera hesitated, remembering the voice's warning. As if reading her mind, Link spoke.

"He most likely tried to turn your favor against me. Don't worry—whatever truth he spoke, it wasn't without a dramatic twist. You can trust me, I hope you know."

She nodded, feeling slightly ashamed at her lapse of judgment, and then recounted to him the words she heard in her dream. Link regarded her gravely.

"I've been holding back information from you because I didn't find it necessary to cause you any more anguish than you've already experienced in your young life, but unfortunately it seems that events have caught up with us much more quickly than I anticipated…" he trailed off, patting around inside the tent for a lantern. Holding it up to his face, he blew a quick puff of air, which ignited into a small flame and cast a bright yellow glow over the interior of the tent. Vera shut her eyes, which ached from the sudden adjustment between the soft moonlight to the harsh radiance emanating from the lamp. She had heard that the Hylians were a magical race, but it was another thing altogether to see that magic in action—even for something as mundane as lighting a lamp.

"Are my parents alive?" The girl asked suddenly, her greenish amber eyes reflecting the flickering firelight like jewels. Link's mouth pulled into a frown, and he regarded her silently with furrowed brows for so long that Vera feared he wasn't going to answer her.

"Yes." He finally said, though his response seemed filtered.

"Then where are they?" Vera's voice quivered with pent up emotion. "Why did I waste my childhood in some shitty-ass orphanages? Was I unwanted? What—why—"

So many questions and conflicting feelings swirled inside of her head that they tangled themselves up in her tongue. Link fidgeted uncomfortably at her barrage of questions, running his fingers through his hair and letting it settle back down in uncontrolled locks about his shoulders.

"Your mother…is the current leader of a Gerudo tribe in the desert on the outskirts of Hyrule." The words tumbled out slowly, awkwardly, as if he had difficulty forming them. "She is also the Sage of the Spirit Temple, and as such is one of the seven individuals responsible for keeping the man in your vision imprisoned."

Vera rested her chin on her drawn knees, her reddish-blonde eyebrows furrowed in an attempt to process the Hylian's words.

"I am unsure as to the exact reason that she gave you up, but my guess is that it was to protect you."

"To _protect_ me? You mean like from people who would do _this_ to me?" Vera lifted up the sleeve of her nightshirt to reveal the burn she had sustained from Ales. Again, Link shifted uneasily.

"I can imagine how horrible it was for you, and how cruel people can be to those who seem weak and unwanted. I grew up an orphan myself."

Vera's head snapped up to look at him with an expression mixed between surprise and respect.

"But I promise you. Your mother did—does—love you." Reaching for a worn leather bag, he pulled out a crinkled pictograph and handed it to her. On it was an image of a plump baby, whose light brown fists were clamped over a darker brown finger. The owner of the finger was off-frame, but the baby's cat-green eyes were focused on the unseen person, her mouth opened in a wide, pink grin. Vera flipped over the pictograph to see that a message in slightly messy writing had been hastily penned down.

"To my daughter…" Vera read aloud, fighting a lump that threatened to form in the base of her throat. "I can't tell you how much it hurts me, having to part from you, and knowing that you'll be better off like this does little comfort. I hope that someday you'll forgive me for this, and I look forward to seeing your beautiful face one of these days (you take after me, after all!)."

Vera looked back up at Link with eyes glassy from tears not yet fallen. "You…you know her?" she asked, an undercurrent of child-like hope coursing through her voice.

Link smiled warmly for the first time in a while. "I do. And actually, you should get to meet her in a week or so, if our journey goes well."

Excitement buzzed through her body like an electric current, and unable to contain herself, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek, surprising him enough to make him jump.

"Hey, Link?" she asked after sinking back down to her previous place. "What about my father?"

His smile faltered, and he threw his head back to stare at the roof of the tent, blowing out a stream of air in an attempt to bide time. "Your father…your father…let's see, how can we explain your father…" He spoke mostly to himself, but loudly enough for her to hear.

"Your father," he said, his eyes meeting hers, "was—is—a…troubled man, of sorts. I'm sure that at one time in his life, he was a good and honest person, and did what he did with noble intentions, but somewhere along the way, _something_ corrupted him." Link fell silent, and looked down at his hands, which were clasped firmly together in his lap. Looking back up at Vera, he continued, "I think it's better if your mother explains things in more detail to you about him, but…" he paused, sighing. "I know that deep down, he loves you too."

He said this last bit more softly, as if it were a secret to be kept, and regarded her with the slightest hint of a sad smile. Vera's stomach dropped at his explanation, remembering the voice in her dream—or vision, as Link had called it.

_Child of the Desert…_

"Who was that man in my dream?" she demanded suddenly. Her heart was beating quickly for reasons she wasn't entirely sure of.

Link clasped a slender hand across his forehead.

"I think we should get a good night's rest. I promise, I will explain everything in due time."

This disappointed the girl, but she silently conceded that he had told her quite a bit, and that she was actually pretty tired. Buzzing with excitement and uncertainty, she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

Getting up the next morning was agonizing for Vera, who was reluctantly dragged from a stagnant state of sleep into a misty-eyed grogginess. She knew that getting up early was essential to Link's safety, but she couldn't help but wish for one morning of sleeping past sunrise. By the time the sun had finally crept up past the horizon, they had already covered a substantial distance.

"How much longer do we have?" Vera's back was starting to ache from the constant shock of sitting on a galloping horse. She leaned sideways to survey the seemingly endless expanse of plains before them, spread like a patchy green quilt upon the undulating earth.

"Quite a bit, I'm afraid…" Link's voice was jostled by the rhythmic impact of the horse's hoofs on the ground. "But I think you'll enjoy our next stop…it should be coming up soon."

True to his words, Vera spotted a relatively small walled enclosure not too far in the distance. An inviting wooden archway and gate framed the entrance, and as they got closer, Vera could see colorful Hylian script painted across the top.

"Ah, here we are!" Link said as he helped Vera down from the horse upon arrival. "Lon Lon Ranch!"

As Link pushed open the gate, the bell attached to it emitted a pleasant jingling sound.

"Coming!" a woman's cheery voice sang from the open-air barn just beyond the gate.

"Pardon my state, I wasn't really expecting-_Link?!" _

The woman, who had the most vibrant red hair Vera had probably ever seen, clasped her hands over her face in shock, causing the bucket she had been carrying to drop to the ground and spill its contents—milk, from the look of it—all over the well-manicured lawn.

"No…oh, my gods…" her hands trembled over her delicate mouth as her eyes grew glassy with tears. "You're…you're alive? You escaped?"

Before Link had a chance to answer, she flung herself upon him, sobbing uncontrollably. Unprepared for her passionate assault, Link stumbled backwards a few feet before regaining balance and grabbing the woman's hips to steady her.

"I'm…I'm really sorry. I just…wow. I haven't seen you since you were arrested-what, seven years ago? And after I heard about the execution orders…"

Despite herself, Vera gasped audibly at this. She knew little of his incarceration, and this bit of information came with a good amount of shock.

Throwing a quick glance at Vera, Link gave the woman a rueful smile. "Yes, well…I decided to bring about a change in plans."

Her name was Malon. Vera had learned this much from her introduction, which had taken place after she had gotten over the surprise of Link's visit. She fed them a meal of roasted beef and warm milk as they sat at a table and ate with silverware for the first time in what seemed like an eternity to Vera.

"Vera," Malon said as they finished the last of their plates, "would you like to see the animals?"

The child's eyes brightened at this prospect. "Mm hmm!" Vera nodded eagerly. She had little opportunity to see animals in the orphanages she grew up in, save for the less-than cuddly rodents and bugs that often frequented the premises, and what she had seen of the gathering of various colored horses and cows munching contentedly at the dewy grass in the pen fascinated her.

She bounced excitedly behind Malon to the giant enclosure at the head of the ranch while Link stayed back, opting to watch while comfortably leaning against the side of Malon's pastel farmhouse.

Vera clambered over the short wooden fence encircling the small pasture, eager to run her hands all over the nearest cow's inviting black and white coat.

Malon giggled at the girl's unrestrained enthusiasm. From her guarded expression upon first meeting her, the fact that Vera was shy and perhaps even slightly bitter gave the child an air of chilling maturity. Despite her plump cheeks and large eyes, Vera possessed the look of an embittered, weary woman. Her eyes held secret stories of abuse, neglect, and sadness that had yet to sink below the surface of her youthful façade. To see her like this, however—eyes full of wonder instead of distrust, cherub cheeks dimpled with the pull of a grin—was almost enchanting. Looking back over her shoulder at Link, who remained reclined against the side of her house, his tautly-muscled arms crossed in front of his chest, she could see a faint smile play across his lips as his eyes remained fixed on the little girl.

"Do they eat sandwiches?" Vera asked, turning her head towards Malon as she tried unsuccessfully to command the attention of a nearby cow.

"Maybe if they are grass sandwiches," Malon replied with a laugh.

"Oh. But they have grass everywhere! Don't they get, like…sick of it?"

"I don't think that they do. They don't really know that any other food exists, and they seem to like grass just fine." Malon smiled as she said this, charmed by the girl's innocent ignorance.

"Well, they need to get educated about some good food, 'cuz grass tastes _nasty. _"

With this, Vera pulled out a small piece of meat that she had sequestered away in her pocket from lunchtime and stretched out her arm towards the cow, holding the piece of meat between her fingertips so that it would be accessible in case the cow took sudden interest in it (and why wouldn't it?). Despite the appealing aroma of the delicately roasted beef, the cow didn't so much as cast a glance at it.

"What? These things are stupid. Fine, go back to eating your nasty grass, I'mma eat me some _real_ food," she said, popping the cold, lint-covered chunk of beef into her mouth.

Malon watched the exchange with a confused grin and raised eyebrows, then announced that she would go inside and leave Vera to her own devices. Vera nodded without looking back at Malon, surveying the ranch for a more interactive animal companion.

It wasn't until Malon had announced that it was dinner time that Vera rejoined her human companions, though grudgingly so.

"Did you make any new friends out there?" Malon asked as she plopped a heaping spoonful of mashed potatoes on Vera's plate.

"Oh yeah. There was this one cow—I named her Sharee—and at first she was just like, eatin grass and stuff, not looking at me or nothing, but then I dunno, I took a stick and scratched her back with it cuz it looked itchy and then she was all happy, and all lookin up at me and stuff like, 'man, thanks, that feels real good' and stuff."

Malon nodded, her mouth in an impressed frown. Link simply reclined back, wearing a gentle smile. He had only seen her this animated a handful of times during their time together, and he wished that she could always be this happy. The specter of dark times loomed ahead of them like a storm cloud, and Link would stall Vera's perception of this as long as he could, any way that he could.

After dinner, Malon offered to show them to their room. Link, already fairly familiar with the house from his childhood, declined to sit in the living area, idly throwing small twigs into the roaring fireplace.

"I'll join you later," he told Vera, who nodded back and rubbed her eyes with a balled up fist.

"C'mon," Malon said, taking the girl's small brown hand in her own milky white one, and led her upstairs. After a moment, Link heard the soft padding of bare feet descending the wooden stairway.

"Is she asleep?" he asked as Malon's face emerged from the shadows.

"Out like a light," Malon answered with a grin.

"Well, she had quite a busy day."

Malon seated herself next to Link on the age-ravaged couch, which despite its age and appearance was still surprisingly soft and inviting.

"She's beautiful," Malon said, pushing a copper lock of hair behind one of her pointed ears. "Does she know—"

"Not much." Link cut her off, then cleared his throat. "She…has an idea of what's going on, but only a fraction of it. If she knew _everything_…" He looked down and pulled at the hem of his tunic. "I'm sure she'd hate me." His voice grew meek, and Malon was reminded of the small, shy boy she had first met him as, only nine years old and frightened, unable to comprehend the grandeur of what he would be faced with.

"She won't hate you," Malon countered, placing a hand on his thigh. "No one could hate you. You're a wonderful person."

"Hah, I wouldn't exactly say "no one"," Link laughed bitterly.

"That's not fair, Link, we all know he was an evil, hateful man who—"

"That's not who I was talking about."

Malon bit her lip, hesitant to respond. She was treading sensitive territory.

"I don't think I'll be able to hold off information from her for much longer though," Link continued after a moment, not looking at her. "He visited her last night…in her dreams."

Malon didn't know what to say to this. Ganondorf was an enigma to her, little more than a distant but tangible nightmare.

"She's a bitch, you know."

The words hit Link like a brick, and his eyes shot up to Malon's, which regarded him wetly and slightly furrowed. Link opened his mouth as if to respond, but he couldn't will the words to come.

"You are a beautiful, wonderful man, and she had you. Of all the deserving women in this world who could have had you, she did, and she fucking _trashed _you."

Malon's voice began to crack with the threat of tears.

"You have no clue how much I love you, Link. I've loved you since I met you. You've always been this unattainable…_thing_ in my life, so close, like I could just reach out and touch you—but never in the way I wanted to . I could never have you. And you know, I hated her. I hated her because she had you, the only thing I've _ever_ wanted in this life, and what did she do with you? Condemned you to death."

"Sh-she didn't, it was her—"

"Does it fucking matter?!" her voice peaked into a shrill rage. "She let you, the man she supposedly loves, be thrown in a prison cell to rot your youth away, then be slated for execution—all for something she took active part in!"

Link's hands trembled in his lap, his bottom lip quivering.

"And the funny thing is," Malon continued, giving a dry laugh. Tears were streaming down her reddened cheeks now. "…is that you still love her. You do, don't you?!"

Link closed his eyes and drew in a ragged breath. "I don't control—"

"Goddammit, Link, get a fucking _grip!"_ Suddenly aware of her voice, Malon attempted to speak in a quieter tone, still brimming with pent-up emotion. "Whatever she feels for you, her country and herself are more important, by leaps and bounds, than you are. _I _love you, Link, and I would _die_ before condemning you to the fate _she_ has, and yet here I am, single and childless, spending my days half-buried in horseshit while she—" Her sentence was interrupted as she broke into sobs, her shoulders shaking violently.

Link gripped his head in his hands. He felt as if he were in a whirlwind of memories, emotions, and sensations, and all he wanted to do was to curl up in a ball and shut his eyes until everything turned black. He then placed a hand on the woman's quaking shoulder, the flurry of thought finally starting to settle.

At his touch, Malon flung herself on him in a fit of desperate kisses. Shocked into inaction, Link stiffly endured them before gripping the woman's shoulders and pulling her away.

"Please, Link…" Malon's blue eyes gazed into his with so much sincerity that it took a lot of him not to turn away. "Be tangible to me. Just once, make me believe that you love me. I know that you don't, and that I can't force you to, but…I really need you."

"I—" his thoughts were racing a mile a minute, as was his heart. "I can't, Malon…I'm not like that. Besides, you're my friend and—"

"_Please_, Link! Please."

His eyes locked on to hers, as if searching for an answer. His face felt hot, and his body stiff. As if taking his inaction as an answer, Malon leaned in to kiss him, her lips burrowing into his to provide access for her tongue. He didn't fight back, and eventually his stiffness dissolved as he responded with his own tongue forcing itself into her hot mouth.

His mind continued to race, shouting for him to stop, but he fought to will it away. The pull of lust was much more powerful than any logic or reason, and he felt determined to submit to it. He allowed his hands to run themselves along her body, down to her thighs, where he slipped them underneath her dress to caress her buttocks.

Malon continued to kiss him hungrily, feeling every dip and curve of his firm body. She began to feverishly undo his belt, which Link helped her with, removing his tunic and undershirt. She could see his erection through the skin tight fabric covering it, and eagerly cupped her hand against it, rubbing it along its length. Her chest was pounding. She had never experienced him remotely like this, no matter how many times she had dreamed of it, and that it was actually happening amazed her more than anything else.

Slipping off her dress to reveal her small breasts and slim body, sculpted from years of physical labor, Link mounted her, relishing in the skin to skin contact that he had missed for the past seven years of his life. He grinded against her crotch, eliciting a small yelp from her. It had been so long since he'd done this, and though it always came with a deep-rooted twinge of guilt and shame, he could not completely abstain from it. He ran his hands down the side of her body and slipped off her underwear in one swift movement. Malon bit her lip in anticipation, parting her legs slightly.

Just the sight of a woman's body, fully accessible to him, caused a chill down Link's spine. He had never felt this urgent, this hungry before, and it both excited and frightened him. Pulling down his own pants, he positioned his hips between her legs and lazily sunk into her. His breath hitched from the intense pleasure of the moist warmth that encompassed him, sending electric tendrils up his spine. Malon gasped at his entry, momentarily overwhelmed by the sensation of being filled so completely, then relaxed her body as she adjusted to him.

Feverishly he began to thrust into her, and for the first time in a long time, he thought of nothing. None of the dull, constant pain of memories, of regrets, or of love scorned haunted him. He wasn't scared, nor did he feel any dread, nor did he wish for non-existence. He just felt pleasure. Bestial, primal, all-encompassing pleasure, and he never wanted it to end. As they both reached their climax, brief images of Zelda's face, contorted into something between pain and ecstasy, moaning his name. A pained cry escaped his throat with the release of an orgasm, and he rolled off of Malon, burying his face into his hands, and sobbed uncontrollably. Even after all of these years, the woman still haunted him, and among other things, Link began to fear if he'd ever be free of her spell.


	6. Chapter 6

**Alrighty, here we go-Chapter 6! I want to thank those of you who took the time to review. They really are the best form of encouragement. Ravenwoodwitch, KaijuKnight, and Anons, you all are great and I try to take your criticism and feedback into account. Readers, let me know how I'm doing! Always, always welcome!**

**Big revelation here. Perhaps some of you saw it coming, perhaps it blindsided you. Let me know! This won't be the only revelation, though, I'll tell you that! Enjoy~**

* * *

Vera stirred awake as sunlight pried through her eyelids. Slowly opening her eyes to take in the pastel blue walls that surrounded her, she emitted a small sound of contentment. What a lovely room and a wonderfully soft bed she was in! Stretching herself out across the tangle of white linen, the girl pressed her nose against her pillow to inhale the slightly flowery scent of whatever Malon had used to wash the sheets with. She wanted to stay in this bed forever, bathed in the incandescent warmth of sunshine that gently caressed her small form. The gentle growling of her stomach, however, prodded her to do otherwise and get some breakfast. Link hadn't seemed to come back to the room to sleep, judging by the undisturbed state of the side of the bed he would have occupied, but Vera didn't put in too much thought as to the reason why. She figured that he probably fell asleep in the living room, or even just got up much earlier than she had.

Reluctantly unwrapping herself from her aromatic cocoon, Vera padded downstairs, where the smell of bacon and coffee beckoned her to the kitchen.

"Well, look who's finally awake," Link said with a tsk as the little girl wandered into the kitchen, her eyes still weighted with grogginess.

"Yeah, but at least I got enough sleep. You look like you got about five minutes of it," she countered, noticing the heavy shadows painted underneath his eyes.

Link's cheeks flushed with color, and he quickly changed the subject. "After breakfast, I'm going to need you to get ready. We're going to have to make up for the slow start if we want to reach Gerudo Valley any time soon."

Vera nodded solemnly and took a seat next to Link at the table to face Malon, who looked just as exhausted as Link did.

"Man, how long did y'all stay up for?"

This incited Malon's cheeks to blossom in to a blush almost as red as her hair.

"Vey, hush and eat your breakfast." Link placed a plate of hot bacon and some kind of porridge in front her, plopping into his seat to massage his temples.

"Yes, sir," she responded quietly, sensing his uncharacteristic lack of patience. As she began eating, Link rose from his chair and headed upstairs.

"I'm going to pack your things. When you're done, if you could please wash up, I'll leave a change of clothes out for you. Don't worry about your dirty clothes. I'll take care of them."

Vera kept her eyes on her plate as she ate, listening to his tense footsteps gradually fade as he disappeared upstairs.

"Did you sleep well?"

The sudden break of silence startled her, and she looked up at Malon in confusion and bewilderment for a moment before answering.

"Yes, very well. Um, is he mad?"

Malon gave her a wilted smile. "No, he just…has a lot to worry about right now. Don't worry, sweetie, I'm sure he'll be back to normal later today." Watching the girl scrape up the last of her plate, she extended an arm across the table to offer to clear it for her.

"You should probably go take your bath now so you can be off on the road," she said gently, carrying the plate to the sink. "It was lovely having you, and I really hope you come back to see me sometime."

The goodbyes were brief and awkward. The cold way Link stiffly acknowledged Malon struck Vera as especially strange, particularly when juxtaposed by the open (at least for him), friendly way he regarded her yesterday.

Malon hugged Vera tightly and reminded her to visit. Vera nodded, reluctant to leave the good-natured woman and her sunny ranch and cows. With a soft kiss on the cheek, Malon let go of the little girl and watched her company mount their horse and gallop off. The tightness in her chest grew with the distance, and it wasn't until they had disappeared into the blue horizon that Malon allowed the tears to fall.

* * *

Hours passed before Link spoke his first word.

"Hey…I'm sorry about how I acted this morning." He said quietly.

Vera shrugged in response, having had been slightly hurt but more so confused by his countenance.

"I was reminded of some things that I've been trying to forget, and I'm…also actually kind of scared." He gave a dry laugh, as if in a half-hearted attempt to guild his words with humor.

She perked up, surprised at his confession. "What are you scared of?"

Link sighed, finding the words difficult to summon.

"Of quite a few things," he said, his voice ragged with weariness. "There are a lot of things I'm going to have to protect you from, Vera. A lot of things that will hurt you…hurt us. You're going to have to learn everything eventually, but for now I—"

Link's words were interrupted by a cry of pain as an arrow embedded itself into his shoulder blade, knocking him off of his horse and unto the ground with a heavy thud.

Vera screamed as more arrows whizzed past her and struggled to get off of the panicked horse to tend to the fallen man.

"Link?!"

Her small hands hovered over his tense form, scared to touch him. His teeth were gritted in pain, and he had one hand wrapped around the arrow in his shoulder, fighting pain and physical limitations in an attempt to pull it out.

"He's down!"

Link's eyes snapped open in panic, and he turned his head to the direction from which the arrows came. A cloud of dust, partially shrouding a group of about six or seven soldiers thundered towards them, shouting excited words rendered unintelligible by the commotion.

"Shhhit…" he cursed under his breath through gritted teeth, and pulled harder to dislodge the arrow from the back of his shoulder. He did his best to stifle what would be a howl into agonized whimpers as it was slowly pulled out, tearing flesh and sinew.

The soldiers were almost close enough to see the whites of their eyes now, and Vera gripped Link's tunic in desperation. They were probably going to kill her, and either capture him for execution or kill him outright, and he was helpless against such an overwhelming number of armed men—particularly now that he was wounded.

Link wrapped his unwounded arm around Vera and pulled her down so that she'd be less accessible to the knights' blades as their muscular horses surrounded them.

"By gods I don't believe it," one knight, wearing heavily elaborate armor, said as he hopped off of his horse and approached the pair. He raised one metal-gloved hand to push up the face guard on his helmet, revealing light green eyes and a well-trimmed black beard.

"I would have thought you'd have had the sense to leave Hyrule by now, but here you are, curled up at my feet like a conniving whore. And you decided to pick up a little Gerudo, too!"

He let his words settle, his bright eyes unwavering as he held Link's quiet glare.

"Well, I do hope you enjoyed your little excursion, because your next one will be to the gallows. Guards!"

Two men jumped off of their horses and seized Link each by one arm, causing him to wince in pain as they hoisted him up into a semi-standing position.

"Not so quickly though—King Jadian tends to be rather tight-fisted with rewards, even for such a personal prize as you, so I think I'll have my fun first. " His emerald gaze set itself on Vera, who stood paralyzed with fear. "I'm going to show you exactly what your old friend here deserves."

Drawing a dagger from his hip, he began to caress Link's right cheek with it, running the flat side of it along his jawline. His other hand wandered down to Link's crotch, which he cupped in the palm of his hand.

"No wonder you had so much luck with the Queen—you're so well-endowed!" the man laughed, weighing his manhood in his hand. "And with such a beautiful face as yours…almost like a woman…"

With a flash of the knife, gashes manifested on Link's once-smooth cheek, welling up with crimson blood. He didn't allow any indication of pain to escape his lips other than the drawing of a sharp breath, and his crystal-blue eyes glowered at the bright green ones of his tormenter.

"STOP!"

The man turned his head to the little girl in surprise.

"Please, stop. He doesn't deserve any of this. He's a good person!" Her voice quivered with emotion, and something dangerous buzzed inside of her.

The man raised his brows in amusement. "Oh, but he does, child." With this, he squeezed his metal clad hand around Link's crotch, who groaned in anguish.

"You—you better stop!" she stammered. Her veins smoldered with an unknown power, building slowly into her core.

He narrowed his eyes. "I'd _better_ stop?" Something icy crept into his tone, chilling her.

"Y-yes." She clenched her fists tightly, and a familiar burning sensation spread across the back of her left hand.

Keeping his narrow regard on her, he once again raised his knife, lowering it towards Link's throat. Small crimson pearls beaded up onto the blade as he pressed it slowly into his skin.

Link's teeth bared into a feral, panicked snarl as he felt the cold metal burrow deeper into the thin flesh of his neck. He shut his eyes to avoid looking at Vera, who stood helplessly to the side, her eyes round in panic.

_Please, run…_ He thought, wishing he could will her away. It was one thing to hold freedom only to have it ripped away, but it was another thing to drag a beautiful, innocent child down into an untimely fate. He peeled open his eyelids and shifted his sight to the little girl in an effort to transpose his thoughts onto her, but just as she came into view a white-hot flash engulfed his vision, and a blistering heat washed over him. Around him he could hear the gurgling screams of grown men, and just like that, everything stopped.

* * *

Consciousness ebbed in tentative waves as foreign voices echoed throughout Vera's ears.

"Hey, Nahla—she's moving. Quick, get Link! Hiya, kiddo, you hear me?"

Vera stirred, clenching her eyes shut against the fingers of sunlight that fought to pry them open.

"C'mon, kid! Let's see those lovely eyeballs! I'm sick of seeing your face like that."

A rough yet feminine hand pinched her small nose, startling Vera awake.

"Yeeah, there we go! My gods, I thought you weren't _ever_ gonna get up!"

Vera stared up at a dark skinned woman hovering over her. Thick lips painted with a frosty gloss were pulled back in a triumphant grin, and her bright amber eyes—they were yellow, almost—sparkled with a slightly mischievous air.

"Wh-where am I?" Vera asked hazily as she took in her surroundings. The room was built out of earth-toned clay, with various textiles of bright blues, golds, reds, oranges, and purples adorning the walls and floor. Intricately woven large rugs unlike anything Vera had ever seen before were spread out along the ground, their geometric patterning in blue and gold leaf intertwining into a meditative composition.

"Where are you? Why, you're in the one and only Gerudo Valley, kiddo!" the woman boomed proudly. Vera couldn't help but notice the way the woman's large, half-heartedly concealed breasts seemed to balloon out towards her intimidatingly as she ran slender fingers through her bright red pixie cut.

Vera sat up and began peeling off the layers of silk sheets from her feeble form.

"Not so fast, though!" the Gerudo said as she pushed the girl back into the bed. "You're still pretty weak from your little stint back there, and Link'll kill me if I let you do anything stupid. So no exploring for you!"

Perking up upon hearing his name, Vera asked, "Link? Is he here?"

Patting Vera's unruly orangish mane, the woman gave her a nod. "Yeah, and he's been worried sick about you, too! You were out the entire journey up here and for a good two days after you got here, so he was basically in tears, begging us to do something to get you to wake up. Shoulda seen him! Never have I seen that man such an emotional wreck. I'm sure he'll be ecstatic—"

The sound of a wooden door banging open and desperate footsteps interrupted her.

"Vera?!"

Link tore through the sheer curtain separating Vera's room from the rest of the adobe structure. Upon seeing the little girl conscious, a smile illuminated his newly scarred face.

"How are you feeling?" he asked gently as he sat on the edge of Vera's plush bed.

"Good," Vera responded, comforted by his familiar presence. "What happened?" She remembered only bits and pieces of the events that led up to this, and the poorly healed gashes on Link's cheek served as an unpleasant reminder of them.

Link's smile fell solemn. "Well…let's just say that without your intervention, much worse things could have happened."

Vera understood the implications of his signature veiled response, and this time she had no need nor desire to press him for details. The power Link had successfully repressed a few weeks back (had it already been that long ago?) had resurfaced in her desperation. Again, a flash of the terrifying demonic face appeared briefly, but she quickly shook it away.

"So we're at Gerudo Valley? Does this mean I get to see my mom?" child-like excitement was woven throughout her question.

Link and Vera's nurse exchanged uncomfortable glances.

"See, the thing is kiddo, that Lady Nabooru left to investigate a reported disturbance in our Spirit Temple a few days back, and hasn't returned yet." Realizing the heavy implications of her words by Vera's wide eyed reaction, the nurse added quickly, "But she's a tough broad, that mama of yours. The Desert Colossus isn't exactly next door, so just getting there for an hour's visit and back would take a good three or four days."

"I'll be leaving tomorrow morning to make sure everything is alright and assist her back here," Link added, allowing a half-smile to dimple his unmarred cheek.

Vera gathered up her covers in the balls of her fist. "Wait, you're going too? Am I going with you?" A deep-rooted fear of loss clawed its way up her throat and settled into an uncomfortable lump.

Kaia stood up awkwardly. "I'll go ask for the cooks to prepare a little snack," she said, and stiffly made her way out of the room.

Link turned his attention back to Vera and shook his head soberly. "No, I'm afraid not. As Kaia suggested, it isn't exactly an easy journey, and the Temple itself certainly isn't pleasant." He shuddered inwardly as he recalled the eerie vibe from the exotic desert-themed temple, but silently thanked the gods that it wasn't the dreadful Shadow Temple he'd have to return to, whose gore-encrusted torture devices and vengeful undead creatures still lurked in the depths of his nightmares.

Vera wordlessly clung to the loose white shirt Link was now wearing and buried her face into his chest. Despite the welcoming, vibrant atmosphere of what she had seen of the Gerudo Valley, the thought of being separated from her soft-spoken guardian struck her with a paralyzing fear. Her past of being left with strangers—alternatively dispassionate about her presence or abusive—had given her more than a bitter taste for it.

"But Kaia—Kaia said that it was normal for people to take that long," she protested meekly, her voice muffled by Link's torso.

"Yeah, but Vey, she might need some help. And I promise we'll be back soon. I've been there more than once, so I think it's safe to say that I know my way around," he replied, placing a comforting hand atop her disheveled head.

She didn't respond, instead allowing wet tears to stain his shirt. Startled, Link took Vera by the shoulders and held her back in an effort to take a look at her face.

"You're crying?" he asked incredulously. "Hey, no need for tears! I said I'll be back soon with your mommy! I promise, you'll have a lot of fun here. This is your mother's palace, and you'll be surrounded by her sisters and comrades…it won't be anything like the orphanages you've been to in the past."

Vera nodded, but Link's words did little to stop the flow of tears that continued to cascade down her cherub cheeks.

"Tsk." Link clicked his tongue and gathered the child against him, pressing the side of her doughy face against his firm chest. "You're a big girl, you know…you saved me back there." He stroked her short, wild strawberry blonde hair absentmindedly. "You're the bravest, strongest kid I know, and before you know it, I'll be back with your mother in tow. I rather think that you'll like her…she's a bit rough around the edges, sure—even for a Gerudo—but she's a lot of fun and she'll be _very_ excited to see you."

Vera sniffled in response.

"My goodness, what a face," he said in mock disgust, wrinkling up his nose for emphasis.

Despite herself, Vera couldn't fight the smile that wrestled its way through her tears.

"Aha! Theeere we go!" Link cheered, ruffling her hair into an autumn colored ball of fuzz.

It was still dark when Link got up that next morning. He was loathe to leave the warmth of his bed and expose himself to the chill of the nighttime desert air, so he moved slowly, packing dried foods and other provisions into his worn leather sack. Vera was still sleeping soundly in the smaller bed next to his, halfway buried in sequined embroidered pillows and gold-leaf sheets. He paused from his work to watch the gentle rise and fall of her tiny, bird-like chest, the hint of a smile playing over her rosebud lips. A painful lump dropped into his chest.

That timid, reluctant smile—only fully exposed in slumber—was his.

Those bright, wide eyes, whose expression was both perpetually guarded yet curious, were his.

The way her round little cheeks dimpled, the wild spray of hair, her slightly upturned nose, it was all _his._ And he was too much of a coward to admit it to her. Each time he laid eyes on that little girl—_his_ little girl, born of his loins and once forsaken by him—a new wave of regret overtook him. It was selfish, sure, allowing the girl to entertain false ideas of who her father was and why he had never claimed her to avoid complications. Still, he preferred for her to love him as a stranger than for her to hate him as a parent.

He wasn't ready for questions. He wasn't ready to own up to the mistakes he made in his youth, the mistakes that cost the child he helped bring into the world a childhood.

He gingerly stroked Vera's lively tresses, careful not to wake her up.

"I never stopped thinking about you, you know," he spoke in a nearly imperceptible whisper. "My biggest regret, when I heard that I was to be executed, was that I would die without seeing what you had grown into. And…"

A rueful laugh escaped his bandaged throat as he fought back the tears that blurred his vision.

"…you look a lot like me, now."

Sucking in his breath in an attempt to recall the tears, Link got up and strapped on his bandoleer with a heavy metallic "chink".

After allowing himself one last look at his sleeping daughter, he slipped through the beaded curtains that made up the door and stepped out into the bitter desert. The howling winds of the Haunted Wasteland beckoned him, and wrapping his face with a protective Gerudo cloth, he disappeared into the rust colored blizzard.


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry about the wait on this chapter-I've been very busy with real life stuff. But, I haven't forgotten about this, and here is proof of that!**

**I want to thank those of you who reviewed. I love hearing feedback-it really helps to know that the story peaked your interest enough for you to comment on it, and it definitely helps me going.**

**To respond to some: A lot of you were upset the way Link treated Malon after their tryst. Link is a good person, but he's far from perfect, so I wanted to portray him as a complex person-one with conflicting emotions and mannerisms. I don't think he meant to be a complete asshole, but the awkwardness and pain from events he hasn't quite gotten over caused him to kind of withdraw into himself around Malon and even for a short time around Vera. **

**I also didn't want to make him ridiculously overpowered. He'll still be a badass, but the arrow took him by surprise and knocked him off of his horse, so he really couldn't have had a chance against being surrounded by that many fully armored men-especially when he has the well-being of a child to think about.**

**A lot of other answers to your questions will be revealed in this chapter and later ones so stay tuned, and come at me with more comments!**

* * *

The hot desert wind whipped up tiny granules of sand and lanced them at Link's haphazardly veiled face with merciless tenacity, causing painful little pricks against his skin. He could see next to nothing, as the perpetually raging sandstorm swallowed everything in its gritty clutches. Link was wary of the random rivers of quicksand that scattered the Wasteland. All it would take is one wrong step, and he'd be subjected to a slow, agonizing death by drowning in the viscous liquid.

The last time he had done this, he'd had the Lens of Truth at his disposal, which had allowed him to see a strangely amicable Poe who had guided him through it. He'd also had the Hover Boots, which had proved rather handy in avoiding the insatiable appetites of the rivers of quicksand. This time, however, he had neither of these instruments, and he wasn't too keen on returning to the Shadow Temple's rotting, lethal bowels to retrieve them.

Cautiously trudging through the hellish Haunted Wasteland, he allowed his mind to wander upon the reason Nabooru had rushed to the Spirit Temple in the first place. A "disturbance", one of the Gerudo guards had said. They could offer him no more information than that. The last time he had looked into a reported "disturbance", Ganondorf was spreading around pockets of malice throughout the kingdom of Hyrule.

It couldn't be Ganondorf this time, however. He was currently trapped in a spiritual vacuum held fast by Zelda and the Sage's magic. Furthermore, for some reason brimming with more irony than Link wanted to acknowledge, the Triforce of Power now resided in Vera. The evil King's only power, currently, was to contact her, apparently in efforts to influence her. Something else had to be causing these so called "disturbances", and—

Link's foot landed on something unnervingly soft and began to sink in almost immediately.

Panicked, he attempted to pull it free, which only served to knock him off balance, causing him to fall chest-first into the quicksand pit.

_No._

Steadily his hands were swallowed by the hungry pit, sucking down with enough force to discourage him from wasting his energy attempting to pull himself out. He strained his neck in an attempt to keep his head above the level of the sand, his mind racing with improbable plans for escape.

There was no way out.

After a childhood of braving malevolent temples and slaying impossible beasts,

After a youth of fighting Hyrule's wars, remaining standing as men around him were struck down by blade and arrow,

After nearly eight years of imprisonment in a filthy dungeon, gritting his teeth through daily torture and narrowly escaping execution,

He would die by a simple misstep in quicksand.

He could almost laugh at the irony of it. Almost.

Throwing his head back, he screamed as loudly as he could. He screamed at the Goddesses, who had done nothing but use his wretched form and lead him to misery. He screamed at Zelda, who had filled his heart with empty promises of love eternal and sweet nothings, only to offer him like a sacrificial lamb to her husband's dungeons. He screamed at the quicksand, whose selfish gluttony would be the cause of his demise. And lastly, most of all, he screamed at himself for allowing himself to become a product of his surroundings.

He had become a deceitful asshole, one who gave in to physical pleasures while denying the repercussions. One who would rather bury his prick into some royal pussy than take care of his own daughter, and even now ran from the idea of revealing himself to her.

He was going to die this way, and there would be no going back.

"Quick! Give me your hand—don't struggle!"

The urgent voice of a woman brought him back down to earth. In front of him a red figure stood, obscured by the raging sands.

"M-my hands are buried," he answered, his voice hoarse.

"Geeezz…okay. Don't move, I'm going to have to pull you out with a rope."

The woman cautiously leaned towards him and began wrapping a rope around his torso, securing it in a way that it would neither slip off nor sever him in two. Her body—head and all—was completely covered in a bright red cloak, giving her the appearance of an ornate cartoon ghost.

She began to pull on the rope. "Try to wiggle yourself out—a little at a time. _Don't struggle!"_

Little by little, Link felt himself being pulled up from his sandy prison, until finally his feet were free. Exhausted, he flopped over onto his back, the woman collapsing next to him.

"Th—thank you…" he huffed, his naturally quiet voice further muted by exhaustion.

"No problem. It isn't the first time I've had to pull out some idiot from these sands."

Link didn't bother responding to the obvious dig, concentrating instead on regaining a bit of his strength.

"Hey, stranger—no time to rest. We need to get out of this storm first, unless you want to get caught in this thing at nightfall. The Desert Colossus is not too far up."

Link nodded underneath his cloak despite knowing she couldn't see him, and slowly got back up. His muscles, though taut and well-built, felt weak with strain. His legs shook like a new born lamb's as he attempted to take a few steps and nearly collapsed.

"Ohp!" The woman caught him under the arm. "Heere we go, you can do it."

It was nightfall before they finally reached the outskirts of the storm. The Desert Colossus, Link recognized.

Carved into a cliff, the exotic form of a woman loomed before them, her hands resting on implied knees palms up. Torchlight illuminated her rocky face, giving it an air of stoic sentience, as if she were looking scornfully at any who dared to enter the Temple below her.

Link sauntered over to the small oasis in front of the temple and kneeled before the pond, pulling his cloak from his face.

He scooped up a handful of the clear, cold water into his mud-encrusted hands, watching the moonlight refract off of its surface like a scattering of broken sea shells.

"…_Link?!"_

Link whipped his head around to face none other than Nabooru, who had shed her red veil to reveal a beautifully sculpted brown body sparsely draped in red cloth.

Nabooru rushed up to him and dropped to her knees, her hand gingerly cupping his scarred cheek. Her amber eyes, as golden as the glittering eyeshadow they were painted with, regarded him with wide-eyed disbelief.

"You—you were supposed to be executed?"

Link smirked dolefully and turned his face away. "Yes, well. I decided I had other more important things to do."

Nabooru's ample, frosty lips parted into a wide grin.

"My gods, you were more deserving of that honorary Gerudo title than I thought!" She laughed and wrapped her well-toned arms around his disheveled blond head, nearly suffocating him in her cleavage.

"So!" she exclaimed, pushing him away with enough force to daze him. "What brings you here to my neck of the…" -she looked around at the endless stretch of glittering sand-"..world. I'm sure the girls told you about the reason I ran off here?"

Link gave a quick nod. "Yes. A…'disturbance'?"

Nabooru leaned in toward the shimmering pool of water to look at her reflection, smoothing back a few rogue strands of fiery hair. "It was a disturbance, alright. Redeads and Gibdos decided to set up camp in the temple. My gods, you should've seen it, Link. The place was _teeming_ with them, clambering around, moaning and making all sorts of horrible noises, doing what the undead do…"

Link recoiled at Nabooru's words. Redeads? Gibdos? Just about his least favorite things ever, right next to King Jadian and Ganondorf.

"…Do you know what caused them?"

Nabooru stopped preening herself and locked eyes with him. "No, unfortunately I don't. But I do know this—it's the work of black magic. Not by some beginner, either. It's one thing to summon the undead, it's another to keep them from turning you into a glistening pile of bones." She paused, tracing a slender finger in the sand. "I heard rumors that some individuals have been sneaking up here and preforming some kind of black mass."

Link held his breath and furrowed his eyebrows in concern.

"I've been kinda camping out here, hoping to catch someone—or something—but no luck so far. I'm running out of provisions and this place has been giving me the creeps, so I was gonna head back pretty soon." She sucked in her breath and exhaled, her teeth chattering from the cold air.

Link swallowed and cast his gaze down at the sand, which sparkled like ground up diamonds.

"I brought Vera," he said in a barely perceptible voice.

"What?!" Nabooru looked up at him sharply, her eyes wide and flashing with a muddled array of emotions.

He didn't repeat himself and set his icy blue stare on her—irises so frigidly blue that they almost disappeared into the whites around them, Nabooru noted.

A pregnant silence fell between them for an imperceptible amount of time.

"How—how is she?" Nabooru asked, her words quivering nervously.

"She's beautiful," Link answered. "And smart. And brave…she's perfect." His voice cracked slightly, and he fidgeted anxiously with one of the silver hoops that hung from his earlobes.

Nabooru nodded and allowed another bout of silence.

"So…" Link cleared his throat to signal a shift in topic. "I brought few more days' worth of provisions. I was thinking tomorrow we could see what was going on with the temple, hopefully I can help you clear out some of the Redeads roaming around—"

"Oh, gods, _yes_!" Nabooru interjected, her golden eyes lighting up.

Link gave her a quick nod to affirm that the affair was settled, and pulled out a small pack of tinder from his mud-encrusted sack, setting it in a little ditch quickly dug out by hand. Casting a small spell of Din's Fire with a quick breath it burst aflame, providing the pair much needed warmth.

He then retrieved a mid-sized, carefully wrapped parcel, removing the wax paper to reveal a glistening red chunk of meat.

"My goodness, I sure am glad I saved you from that sand pit!" Nabooru exclaimed as she watched him impale it with a wooden spit and place it on a makeshift grill.

Link flashed her a quick smile in response before pulling out some bread and a canteen of water, wordlessly offering both to her after tearing off a piece for himself.

"Hmmm…" Nabooru groaned in pleasure as she bit into the unleavened bread, letting its firm, slightly spongy texture moisten slowly in her mouth. "You're pretty alright for a Hylian, I ever tell you that?" She asked, mouth still full, before taking a generous gulp from the canteen.

"I think your exact words were, 'oh, goddess, I've never been fucked so good by a Hylian'" Link replied, the bridge of his nose creasing in a mischievous grin.

Nabooru snorted and gave him a half-hearted punch to the shoulder. "Someone's a lot less shy about sex-you-al issues," she teased.

"Yes, well, you kind of forced me out of that pretty quickly. And besides, after a good seven years locked up in a filthy dungeon with little in ways of creature comforts, I'm not very shy about much anymore."

He reached out to remove the spit from the fire, which had begun to hiss as juices from the slab of meat dripped down into the flames.

"Now how would _Madame_ like a nice juicy piece of meat?"

* * *

Vera woke with a start, initially panicked by the unfamiliarity of her surroundings. As the shroud of grogginess faded so too did the confusion, and the first thing she noticed was the emptiness of Link's bed.

A mix of fear and loneliness rose up inside of her, and she did her best to fight back frightened tears. Link had been the first stable, comforting presence Vera had experienced in a long time, and the prospect his absence for however long felt unbearable.

Forcing herself up from her bed, she threw back the bright red curtains covering her room's square window, allowing a flood of yellow sunlight to fill the room.

"Well, heya! Sleepy-bug is finally awake!"

Vera jumped and turned to face a woman she recognized as Kiya, her nurse from the previous day, poking her deep mahogany face through the sheer purple curtains that separated Vera's room from the hallway.

"Ha, sorry, didn't mean to startle ya! Washrooms are to your left, and when you're done feel free to grab yourself some authentic Gerudo breakfast in the kitchen down the hall. Hurry up, though, the kids are eager to meet you, and we've got a lot of fun activities planned for the day!"

Vera nodded, slightly dazed by the onslaught of words the woman had greeted her with. Rubbing one sleep-heavy eye, she began to attempt fumbling with the tangle of sheets.

"No! Don't bother about that! The maids take care of that stuff. Now c'mon! Let's get this day started!" Kiya impatiently squeezed her slender, jeweled fingers open and closed, beckoning the girl to take her hand. "You're never gonna wanna leave this place," Kiya grinned as she led her through the earth-toned hallway.

* * *

Link and Nabooru got up the next morning as the first rays of pink sunlight washed over the Desert Colossus, making every rock glow in brilliant pastel hues. Only the entrance of the Spirit Temple appeared untouched by the nearly blinding morning light.

Darkness so thick it looked palpable shrouded its interior from view and sent involuntary shivers down Link's battle worn spine.

"You ready for this?" Nabooru asked, a nervous smile playing on her lips.

Link took a deep breath and released it slowly before proceeding ahead, left hand readied on the hilt of the sword at his back.

Once inside, the thick sweet-yet-musty smell of dust and decay hit them, nearly sending the pair reeling. Link coughed into his hand, unprepared for the assault on his nose.

"Didn't use to smell like this," Nabooru said through a veil she held protectively over her nose.

Odd effigies of various polygons and foreign script were scrawled all over the walls and floor in white chalk, some of them stained with black splotches eerily resembling blood.

Link gave Nabooru a startled look, his eyebrows knitted together in worry.

Nabooru returned the look, shaking her head in disbelief. "Yeah, I—I have no idea—OH SHIT!"

She jumped back, having stepped on the stiff form of a disemboweled woman whose milky eyes stared upward, the fear and agony she must have felt during her last moments frozen on her pale face.

"Ex-excuse me, I…." Nabooru turned away and started retching violently.

Link approached the body and kneeled down on his haunches, scanning the corpse's grotesque wounds. The poor woman's stomach had been sliced open, allowing her innards to spill out like froth from an over-boiling cauldron. Several stab wounds dotted her left breast in some sort of shape—a star? A pentagon? He couldn't tell.

They certainly weren't haphazard, though—that was for certain.

Link stood back up and walked another couple of feet before almost stepping on another body, similarly disfigured.

He looked up to see another.

And another.

And another.

Five bodies, all with the same wounds, arranged so that they made up the vertices of a pentagon decorated the temple's floor, which had been carved so that the blood from the victims would flow into the little canals and complete the desired shape.

Link exhaled slowly, his mind racing to make sense of the horrors before him. He had fought through many wars in the name of Hyrule and witnessed much in his thirty-two years of life, and yet something about seeing these people brutally murdered in the name of some occult ceremony.

What were these peoples' deaths meant to bring about?

"Link! Look here!"

He looked over his shoulder to see Nabooru, her face still veiled in an attempt to block out the stench of the place, holding a worn book from her forefinger and thumb, the way one would hold a rat by its tail.

"This must be their spell book or whatever. I found it just lying on some makeshift altar over there." She nodded her head toward the northeast corner of the musty ruins. "It was covered in a bunch of dried crap."

Link knitted his eyebrows together in confusion as he took the book that dangled from her outstretched hand.

"I can't read it. I've never seen those symbols before…do you recognize anything?"

Link shook his head slowly as he scanned the faded cover of the book, then froze.

He could barely make out the stylized shape of a single eye, painted in red. His breath hitched in his throat.

The symbol of the Sheikah.

He looked up from the book to meet Nabooru's worried stare.

"I'm going to have to speak with Impa."


	8. Chapter 8

**Here we go, Chapter 8 finally here! Sorry for the long wait-I have a busier than average life. Thanks as always for the reviews, I really really really appreciate them so keep it up, but just a few things I wanna address:**

**-Please don't ask me for specific "lemons". If I have sex scenes, I try to make sure that they serve a purpose to further character and plot development and not dip too far into gratuity. **

**-As mentioned, I do have a crazy busy schedule and cannot give any answers as to when I will be updating next. I mean, I can but I probably won't be able to honor them. I suppose that about once every month is a safe bet, but again, this could be either more frequent or less frequent due to what I have going on at the time.**

**-I am going to start doing this:**

* * *

*****CHAPTER 8*** **

* * *

"Heads UPP!"

Vera frantically dodged out of the way as the fist-sized ball screamed past her ear.

"What the—no! You were supposed to catch it! Dammit, Vera! You just cost us a point!"

Lena, a young Gerudo around the age of fourteen, kicked the arid ground in frustration, causing a cloud of dust to bellow up around her.

"S-sorry…" Vera squeaked, tugging at the purple blouse she had been dressed in that morning.

"Yeah, well…sorry doesn't cut it. Maybe you should just sit this one out." Lena spat at the ground and turned away to face the rest of the team.

Vera stared at the ground, which began to blur as hot tears welled up in her eyes. Lena had been on her case for the past two days, seemingly intent on keeping her from feeling welcome among the younger group of girls of Gerudo Valley. She had been urged by Kiya to join the girls' handball team, but Vera didn't much like having to be around flying hard objects, as all of her previous experiences with them had her as the target.

"Dude, Lena, quit being such a bitch! So she doesn't want to risk getting smacked in the face with a ball, big deal!"

Ariana, another girl of about thirteen with bright, friendly eyes and freckles sprayed across her pert nose approached Vera.

"Don't worry, Vera, it would have been impossible for you to catch that ball without coming out of it with a major bruise. Lena's just a bitch, everyone knows that."

Lena cut her dark golden eyes at Ariana, pushing out her painted lips in an angry pout.

Putting her arm over Vera's small shoulders, Ariana led her away from the game. "Wanna go swimming? Zora's River cuts through the Gorge a little ways up, and it feels awesome in this heat. After the game I was gonna go anyway."

Vera gave Ariana a worried look.

"I…um…kinda don't know how."

"_What?_ You don't know how to swim?! Weeell little missy, you came to the right chick!"

After a good ten minute walk, the two girls reached the Gorge, where the sparkling river burbled calmly below.

"Watch your step! We're in the process of carving out an easier way up and down the canyon to reach the river, but for now we kinda have to be careful." Ariana held out a mahogany hand for Vera and began to gingerly lead her down the steep rocky terrain.

"Okay." Ariana stopped at a ledge about ten feet from the water's calmly flowing surface. Removing the gold bangles from her arms, she turned to Vera. "I just like to hop in with my clothes since I didn't bring any swimming ones. It will be nice for the walk back—they'll be all dry by the time we're back!"

With that, she straightened her lithe form, arms intertwined above her head, and dove off of the ledge.

Vera gave an inward yip as she heard the dense splash. Ariana re-emerged from the water a few seconds later with a wide grin. "C'mon, it's super fun! And don't worry, I'm here for you and I won't let anything bad happen to you!"

Taking a deep breath Vera shut her eyes tightly, attempting to slow her pounding heart.

"I'm gonna count to three, okay? At three you jump!"

Ohhh goodness, she was really going to do this.

"One!"

Vera felt her stomach tighten up into little knots as she peered down at Ariana's bobbing form in the water below.

"Two!"

_I can't do this, I can't do this…_

"THREE!"

At Ariana's word, Vera launched herself from the ledge, eyes tightly shut. Within seconds she felt the water's cool grasp engulf her in a satisfying "ploup!", along with Ariana's long arms surrounding her waist.

Finally, with the other girl's help, Vera broke the surface and took a deep, wheezing breath, erupting into nervous laughter.

"You did it!" Ariana exclaimed excitedly, guiding Vera to the shallower banks of the river.

Vera nodded, sputtering and giggling with a chaotic mix of nervousness and exhilaration.

"How come you never learned how to swim?" Ariana asked after Vera calmed down.

Vera said nothing for a while, watching the clear water distort her outstretched legs. After a moment she shrugged. "No one ever taught me."

Ariana raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Link didn't teach you?"

"No," Vera responded, knitting her brow . "Why would he?"

Ariana held Vera's gaze, as if searching her eyes for some buried secret.

Finally, she reclined back, kicking her feet absent-mindedly in the shallow water. "I don't know. He just seems like a cool guy who would."

"I mean sure, he's cool, but I don't think he'd do that. He's kinda distant and he doesn't really talk much."

Ariana nodded, her eyes fixed at her toes poking through the water's surface. "Well. Shall we go back? We want to leave before the sun starts setting, cuz we don't want to freeze to death!"

She held out her hand to the younger girl and helped her up.

"We're wet right now, but it's still super hot, so watch—by the time we make it back we're gonna be all dry."

By the time the girls made it back to the Fortress they were indeed very dry, their clothes stiff and their brown skin dusted with salt.

"Where have you two been?!" A guard Vera had never met jogged up to meet them at the entrance. "We've been looking all over for you! Lena said the last she saw you guys, you were headed towards the Gorge."

Ariana glanced down at her dusty feet. "Yeah, we got tired of playing the game and decided to go for a swim."

The guard raised a cleanly arched brow, one fist placed firmly on her hips. "Well, Link and Nabooru have returned from the Temple, and they have some rather grave news. Go get washed up and make sure you're ready for the gathering tonight. If you aren't out there and well dressed, I'm placing you on guard duty tomorrow." With that, she turned on her heel and marched back to her post, cradling her scythe against her shoulder.

"Nyeh nyeh blah blah nyeh," Ariana mocked behind the woman's back, drawing her nose into a hideous parody of a nagging old woman. "She's so freaking uptight. She's all bitter because she failed the fitness test to be a warrior, so now she like, takes her job super seriously."

Vera nodded, trying to hide the excited buzz she felt within her. Link was back. With Nabooru! Her _mother!_

Still, an irksome sense of doubt lurked beneath the excitement. Would she like this woman, who supposedly gave birth to her ten years ago? Would this woman like _her_? Further still, why would this be the first time she was meeting her?

As daylight melted into the berry-like hues of dusk, Vera was carted about this way and that by various, nameless members of the Gerudo fortress.

Currently, she found herself plopped into a large pool-like bathtub brimming with steaming water.

She gritted her teeth as the nearly scalding water touched her skin, her small fingers outstretched in discomfort. Just as she had finally begun acclimating herself to the water's temperature, she was assaulted by a barrage of foamy soap suds grated into her skin by way of sand-paper like sponges. Her hair received the same treatment, followed by a sudden cascade of more, even hotter water.

After being plucked from the water and hastily but thoroughly dried off, she was doused with sweet-scented oils, composed of exotic aromas she had never before smelled. A lavender colored sheer, billowy blouse was pulled over her head, and after another tortuous hour of hair-pulling and face-painting, she was finally set loose to join the festival.

"Whoa…" was all that escaped her throat when she stepped outside to see the transformation that had occurred to the desert village: A large fire pit over which a whole pig roasted blazed in the middle of the dusty courtyard. Sheer fabrics dyed vibrant hues of purples and golds and reds were draped almost haphazardly, forming enticing looking canopies under which scantily clad women smoked hookah and flirted with newly arrived Gerudo men, and the excited chatter of voices mixed in with the alluring cry of an unseen violin and beating drums.

"Well, hel-lo, little girl! Long time no see."

A soft but masculine voice startled Vera from her gape-mouthed survey of her surroundings, and she spun around to see Link. He wore billowy white pants similar to those of the Gerudo men present, the open-breasted shirt exposing several tracks of painful looking scars from years past.

"Link!" Vera exclaimed, and threw her arms around his waist.

Link placed a hand on her tightly-pulled back hair. "You have fun?"

Vera loosened her grip on him and shrugged. "It was okay. What about you?"

"Just okay, huh?" He took her hand in his own and led her to an empty purple canopy. "It was just okay for me, too." Vera sat down on the soft carpet and pulled a silk pillow into her lap to rest her chin on and observe the bustling scene around her.

"Where'd all the men come from? I thought Gerudos were mostly women," Vera asked as Link prepared her a plate of hot food from the fire.

"Well," he said, plopping a spoonful of couscous on to her plate, "that's true. However, there are several rogue bands of male Gerudo who wander around on their own. Some of them come to settle with the larger groups of women in fortresses like this one, but many just do their own thing and come a couple of times a year to, ah…" he trailed off, chewing on the inside of his cheek as he searched for his words. "…re…populate."

"Oh," Vera said, giggling quietly.

Link cleared his throat uncomfortably and set down the plate of food in front of her.

"By the way," Link took a swig of something from an opaque glass. "You said you wanted to meet your mother, right?"

Vera gasped, almost choking on a mouthful of roasted pork. "Yes! Is she here?"

Link stifled a smile and cocked his head towards an approaching figure.

"Hello, Miss Vera!"

Vera stared in amazement at the woman now standing in front of her, who looked amazingly beautiful with her heavily gold-painted eyes giving her an even sultrier look, and her sculpted body glittering with jewels.

"So this is the little rugrat I gave birth to all those years ago?" she placed a hand on her hip and lowered her torso so that her amber gaze met Vera's green one.

Vera felt speechless, frozen by this woman's arresting beauty and the fact that this was her _mother._

"Well," she continued, straightening back up. "She certainly is beautiful like her mommy, but I can't help but feel she takes more after someone else…" Nabooru turned her head slowly to lock eyes with Link, who glared back with electric intensity.

Vera felt her stomach tighten uncomfortably as she watched the suffocating tension between the two adults.

It was suddenly broken when Nabooru clapped her hands loudly together and turned her attention back to Vera. "So! It looks like me and my little buddy right here have a lot of catching up to do!"

She plopped down cross-legged next to Vera, placing her hands on her knees. "But first," she said, a mischievous glint in her eyes, "You need to be initiated into the Gerudo tribe!" She reached for a glass and a poured a light brown liquid from a heavily decorated pitcher.

Vera heard a yip of protest from Link, and turned to see him staring at Nabooru incredulously.

"Y-you can't give her that," he stammered, his eyebrows furrowing together in frustration and disbelief.

"Oh? And why's that?" Nabooru continued pouring the drink, not bothering to look at him.

"Because she's_ ten_?" He responded, a break in his voice betraying his urgency.

"Don't you think that's a decision to be made by her parents?" Nabooru asked coolly, once again meeting his eyes in a non-chalante challenge. "After all, _I'm _her mother, and I'm pretty sure I get to choose what I let my daughter have. Who are you, exactly?"  
Link's expression darkened. "Right, I forgot. You do whatever the fuck you want." With that, he turned on his heels and strode away, disappearing into the festival.

Vera shifted uncomfortably as she watched him go, and turned back to her mother. "Um, I don't think—"

"Pay him no mind, kiddo. He just gets a bit overprotective over anyone he grows attached to. He's so used to bailing people out of trouble that he forgets to give others any credit. Trust me, a little booze won't hurt you, and he'll get over it eventually. I've known him since he was about your age."

This took Vera by surprise. "What? Really?"

"Oh, yeah! I've got a few years on him, and I was dealing with an…insurrection of sorts, and needed help getting something that was in a hole too small for my fat ass—I mean butt—to reach, and he just pops up out of nowhere, this cute little thing with the roundest cheeks and the most determined look on his face and offers to go get it for me!"

Nabooru reclined onto a group of pillows and took a long swig out of her glass. "So it all started from there. Say, go ahead and try some! Like I said, he's had a hard time and takes things a bit too seriously sometimes, so you pay him no mind. Go ahead! You're not a real Gerudo til you try it!"

Vera took a deep breath and looked at the contents of the glass with a frown. The smell of it burned her nose and made her eyes water, but she tipped back the glass anyways.

The drink got about halfway down her throat before the searing pain hit her mouth and she coughed it back up, some of it coming out of her nose and seemingly melting her sinuses.

"ACK! What—what was-" Vera tried to form her words through her coughing fit, snorting out of her nose in an attempt to rid it of the liquid fire.

Nabooru clutched her sides as she laughed so hard she struggled to maintain her balance.

Wiping her nose, Vera glowered at her mother through suspicious eyes, wiping away the tears that had formed as a reaction to the drink.

"I'm—I'm sorry baby," she stuttered, trying to stifle her fits of laughter. "I didn't mean to do that to you! It's pretty strong alcohol, so it takes a little getting used to, but—" she broke out into a snicker—"I'm glad you at least tried it."

She placed an arm around her daughter's shoulder and wiped away a tear from the corner of her eye with an index finger, still visibly struggling to suppress her dying laughter.

After she calmed down, she reclined back onto the pile of pillows behind her, sprawling herself out in an immodest relaxed position.

"So," she said, having mostly regained her composure, "tell me about what type of stuff you like to do! Do you have any boyfriends? "

"Um, actually, I was hoping to ask _you_ a few questions, if that's okay."

Nabooru recoiled slightly, taken aback by the girl's distrustful, even bitter regard.

"S-sure thing, sweetheart. Anything!" Nabooru didn't actually mean that. There was a lot of stuff she would rather not have to talk about or explain, but Vera was a smart girl, and she would be demanding answers to difficult questions. She owed her child at least those answers, didn't she?

"Why did you put me in an orphanage?"

And boom went the million dollar question, just like that.

Nabooru felt her stomach drop.

"Please…trust me when I say that I made my choice with what I thought at the time would be in your best interests—"

"No you didn't!"

Vera was moments away from tears now, her voice trembling with pent up emotion. Her small fists were balled up so tightly they shook, and Nabooru felt a weary awareness of the lightly glowing mark on the girl's left hand.

"Baby, listen to me." Nabooru grabbed her daughter's shoulders and looked her steadily in the eyes. "You were born with something extremely dangerous—something that many people have _killed_ to get their hands on."

Her golden eyes flicked towards Vera's Triforce, and Vera turned her head to look at the mark.

"Sending you away was the best way I could hide you from anyone—or thing—pursuing that power that you hold. As long as you were with me and aware of your origins, it would be all too easy for someone to figure out what you had, and I would be powerless to protect you from them. My choice—or rather, the Goddesses' choice—was the only way. Even now, I'm scared for you. There is something following you, which is why Link took you. He's the only one who can truly protect you from it. _Please _ Vera…"

Vera searched her mother's eyes, which no longer gleamed with haughty confidence, but with powerless desperation. She felt her expression soften, and allowed herself to be pulled into Nabooru's embrace.

The two said nothing as they reveled in the newfound bond of parent and child, taking comfort in each other's touch as the music swirled around them in the chilly night air.

"Um…m-mom?" The term was foreign to Vera, who would have never imagined herself using it—especially not with someone she had essentially just met.

"Yes, kiddo?" Nabooru concealed a smile at the unfamiliar word.

"What's after me?" Fear covered the little girl's face.

"Don't worry about that right now. It won't help anything. Just rest assured that Link is more than capable of protecting you from it. It's what he was born to do…"

Vera nodded, trying to suppress the image of the demonic face that had haunted her dreams a few months back.

"Can I ask you another question?"

A tightness formed in Nabooru's stomach again, as she feared the onslaught of another question that would probably make her daughter hate her.

"Who's my father?"

This girl did not disappoint.

"Uh." Nabooru quickly drained her glass to bide time. "He—uh…"

"He's right here."

Nabooru and Vera snapped their heads in the direction of the voice to see a solemn-looking Link.

Vera stared at him incredulously, her thoughts racing too quickly for her to make sense of them.

"I'm sorry I lied to you, Vera. I should have told you the first day you met me. I just…" he trailed off and looked at the ground, shrugging his shoulders.

Vera shook her head slowly, trying to sort out the maelstrom of thoughts and emotions swirling inside of her. "You told me…"

"I know. I know. I didn't want to…complicate things."

"You mean _more than they are right now_? After you told me like ten times that you had no relation to me? After letting me believe for the months we've been together that you were just some good-hearted white knight who was actually really nice to me?"

Link remained silent, watching Vera with an unreadable expression.

"I um…I need to…go somewhere." The familiar sting of tears struck Vera's eyes and nose, and she briskly walked out of the tent, leaving the two adults to simmer in the tension.

Link took a step to go after her, but Nabooru stopped him with a firm hand on his shoulder. "Leave her be," she said sternly. "She needs time to collect her thoughts and sort this stuff through. She has a lot to digest right now."

He gave her a pained expression, then looked back down at his feet before collapsing into a sitting position.

"I'm a shitty person," he murmured, running his fingers through his hair.

"Nah," Nabooru said, scooting next to him. "I'm just not sure you're quite deserving of that Triforce of Courage."

Link shot her a warning glare, and Nabooru chuckled lightheartedly.

"She'll forgive you. You just need to be honest and open with her from now on. Give her the whole story."

Link raised his eyebrows. "_Whole_ story?"

"Well, y'know…the kid friendly version." She patted him on the back hard enough to almost knock him off-balance.

He sighed and laid his head back to look at the silver moon, half of which appeared tucked away behind an inky black blanket of night sky. How much he wished he knew how to express the myriad of thoughts and feelings he kept locked away. He wished he could be blessed with words so that he could win back the one person who truly meant anything to him anymore…

A piercing scream shot through the jovial night air.

Link and Nabooru jumped to their feet as chaos erupted around them.

"Lady Nabooru! Several Stalfos have been spotted at the edge of the fortress! They are quickly advancing and appear to be heavily armed." A young guard spoke gripped the wooden staff of her scythe with white-knuckled tenacity, her voice controlled but urgent.

Nabooru nodded, knitting her eyebrows together in a way that betrayed her concern. "Make sure all of the children and the unarmed are safely barricaded in the inner-most rooms, and secure all windows. I'm going to gather my warriors and man the front line. Link!"

She turned towards him, struggling to keep her expression calm. "Go find Vera and don't leave her side. I have a bad feeling this is a search party for her."


	9. Chapter 9

**Here is chapter 9! It's a longer chapter for you guys, and I slowed down the plot slightly at the end to make room for a bit more characterization. Please let me know what you think of the story thus far in the reviews-do you like the direction it's going in? Do you have any constructive criticism? Suggestions? I didn't get enough reviews last time, so lay 'em on me, people! **

**Here you go~**

* * *

**CHAPTER 9**

* * *

It was a peculiar noise that startled Vera out of her brooding meditation. Voices close enough to a human's so as to almost sound banal, yet otherworldly enough to incite an inexplicable primal fear of its source.

"Wh-who's there?" Vera stammered, fearing the response.

There. There it was again, now more bestial, like the low growl of a canine, but superimposed with the menacing grunt of a man.

Vera forced herself to look up, and her heart nearly stopped at what she saw.

An army of skeletal soldiers advanced towards her, not ambling the way one would imagine the undead to do, but _marching_ forward with a chilling directness. Their bony faces were twisted in a macabre toothy grin, and a faint red glow illuminated their cavernous eyes. Fingers dripping with shreds of mostly decayed flesh gripped rusted daggers and dirt-crusted shields.

Was this another nightmare? Had she somehow fallen asleep after the alcohol, and Link's confession along with these spectral knights were just part of a very lucid dream?

Partially in an attempt to assure herself of her footing in reality and partially out of desperation, Vera dug her nails into her thighs, yelping when they sunk far enough into her flesh that blood pooled into the little crescents left behind.

She wasn't dreaming. There really were a bunch of angry skeletons advancing towards her.

Free from her shock-induced paralysis, she jumped to her feet and spun around to bolt back to the Fortress, but found the camp to be in flames, with even more skeletal warriors attacking panicked Gerudo guards.

Her throat and chest tightened as the realization set in that she was trapped, and that creatures more horrifying than anything she could have imagined to physically exist were quickly closing in on her.

Vera wildly looked about for any escape, her breathing rate quickly escalating as the situation appeared more and more desperate. She was flanked by steep plateaus on either side of her, and robbed of any hiding place.

Crap. It was fight or die.

Vera looked down at the Triforce on her left hand, remembering how it had seemingly obliterated an entire group of soldiers. Perhaps she could do the same thing…?

_Okayyy…how does this thing work? _

The mark was dull, showing no signs of the radiating power that it had previously.

The soldiers were getting closer now—close enough that she could make out disturbing individualities in each of their bony forms.

Out of desperation, she raised her left arm in front of her, the back of her hand facing the creatures.

Concentrating as much as she could, she tried to stir in that same electric anger that she felt at the men attacking Link.

All that she could feel, however, was the incessant pounding of her heart against her ribcage.

_It isn't working…why isn't it working?!_

She felt like she wanted to cry, but she was too terrified to even summon tears. All she could do was grasp at her hair and feel her breathing quickly give way to hyperventilation.

"_Get down!"_

Vera fell to the ground just quickly enough that the black horse jumping over her didn't take off her head.

Stunned, she looked up to see a physically disheveled but composed-looking Link atop the animal, gripping a heavy-looking sword.

"Don't move from this spot," he told her sternly, glancing back at her from over his shoulder.

His horse pawed nervously at the ground, snorting and tossing its head.

With a grunt, he dug his heels into the horse's haunches, spurring the animal towards their undead opponents.

Vera watched slack-jawed he trampled a few of the closer ones, circling the horse back before they could land any blows on the animal or its rider.

Link raised his sword above his head, causing it to glow blue, then red, and launched a boomerang-like ball of energy, decapitating a few more of the soldiers.

The ones that weren't felled by this attack had begun to flank him, however, creating a semi-circle around him.

Spinning the horse around in panicked circles, Link surveyed the situation as thoroughly as he could. The horse would be a disadvantage at this point.

He stood up, balancing precariously on the back of the horse. Vera's stomach tightened as she watched the horse's wide eyes, fearing that it would suddenly do something to knock its rider off-balance.

Once the attackers had gotten close enough to him to leave an opening behind them, Link deftly leapt over their heads, softening his landing with a roll. Not wasting any time, he swung his sword as soon as he stabilized, decapitating another two of the soldiers in the time they took to turn around.

Seemingly angered, three of the surviving creatures charged him at once. Link ducked under one of their deadly swings, but couldn't escape the second's slash. Vera gasped as she saw the jagged blade slice into his side, causing a crimson bloom to stain his now tattered white blouse.

Link didn't seem to notice, however, turning on his heels and killing the foe with a vertical slice across its collar bone.

After a few more swift swings of his sword, the last of the undead army was reduced to a pile of glistening bones.

Link dropped the sword and grasped his wounded side, panting heavily as the adrenaline wore off and the pain and exhaustion set in.

Vera hesitated before cautiously approaching him.

"Um…th-thanks…" she stammered, placing a hand on her opposite shoulder shyly.

Link looked up at her, his face dripping with sweat and blood, and gave a quick nod of acknowledgement.

"D-do you need some help or something?" Vera continued, tentatively reaching an arm towards the exhausted man.

He shook his head, flinging little droplets of sweat on her. "I'm fine," he murmured. Straightening up as much as he could, he began to head towards the Gerudo camp, where moans of pain and cries of anger rose from the battle-torn village.

Vera tried not to look around her at the gutted bodies of Gerudo warriors and the bones of their attackers that were strewn about. She followed Link to a plain white tent, where she could see the silhouettes of women busily tending to wounded figures.

"Link!" Kiya pulled open the door flap and stood aside to let them in. "Thank gods you found her! Nabooru was freaking out."

Link nodded and sat down on an available stool.

"Oh, shit, you're hurt—Marlina! Come here, Link—"

"Don't worry about it, Kiya. There are a hell of a lot more people here who need attention."

Kiya raised her eyebrows incredulously at him.

"But—are you kidding? I can basically see your intestines through that thing!"

Link waived her off. "I've suffered through a lot worse than this."

Kiya placed her hands on her hips and observed him for a moment before exhaling. "Alright. But we'll at least get you some water. It's the least we can do—we would have been wiped out had you not kicked some serious bony ass back there."

Link leaned back and quietly accepted the glass of water, while Vera sat down awkwardly on a cot next to him.

"Hey, uh…"

Link turned his head towards her and raised an eyebrow.

"What were those things?"

Link leaned his head back again and closed his eyes. "Stalfos."

"Stalfuz?"

"Stal_fos_ . They're the bony corpses of fallen warriors, usually animated by a dark presence."

Vera shuddered. "What kind of 'dark presence'?"

Link shrugged lazily. "Well, they along with other undead creatures tend to be a sign that something is amiss."

She pressed her lips together in a thin line. As per usual, his answers to her questions were pithy and raised even more questions.

"…Okay."

The little girl clasped her hands together in her lap and watched the man—her _father—_sink into inaction. Aside from the steady rising and falling of his scarred chest, he looked almost lifeless.

Getting up, she decided to look for any familiar faces, weaving through the numerous cots and nurses while avoiding looking at the wounded.

"Vera!"

A young girl's voice marked with surprise startled her. Turning towards its direction, she brightened up upon seeing Ariana making her way towards her.

"Oh my gods, thank goodness you're alright!" she exclaimed, bringing her into a quick, firm hug.

Vera smiled shyly as the girls pulled away. "Yeah…I would have been a goner for sure if…" she trailed off and stole a quick glance in the direction of Link's slumped form.

Ariana nodded, tucking an escaped lock of burgundy hair behind her ear. "For sure. It was some kind of luck that he was here. He took out the majority of them in the camp by himself! The Hylian Army was dumb to let him go."

Vera perked up at this bit of information.

"He was a part of the Hylian Royal Army?"

"Hell yeah he was—he was General, actually. You haven't seen that tattoo?"

Vera actually had seen it; the crimson silhouette of a rising phoenix, surrounded by some sort of abstracted wing or garland decoration would often creep past the lapels of his tunic when he chose not to wear his tights underneath. She had never thought to ask him about it, though, not assigning it any more importance than the rest of his appearance.

"Yeah, man, he was Queen Zelda's top guard dog. Nobody could touch that fool—he was basically invincible."

"What happened?"

Ariana shrugged, stretching out her arms above her head. "I don't know the whole story, but" -she dropped her voice down to a husky whisper—"apparently he and the Queen had a…thing…going on and when her husband found out about it he was none too happy, if you catch my drift."

Vera nodded slowly, wide-eyed. "So, wait…were he and my mom married, or…?"

This caused Ariana to snort out a sudden and loud bout of laughter before she caught herself by slapping a hand over her nose and mouth.

"Oh, man, Lady Nabooru marrying…actually, _any_ Gerudo woman marrying. That's a good one."

Ariana lead Vera over to a more peaceful corner of the tent, pulling out two stools for them to sit on. "If you haven't really noticed, we pride ourselves on our independence. The majority of Gerudos are female and tend to stick together. There are a few rogue groups with men who wander around, and they'll randomly meet up with us on nights like tonight, but there's never any like, _permanent_ pairings."

"Oh," Vera said, piecing together what she could in her 10 year old mind.

"Our population numbers are always just enough because of that. A lot of Gerudo women like to mess with Hylian or even Zora men, so that's when we get people like—"

Ariana stopped herself, biting both lips.

"It's alright. I…I just found out tonight," Vera said with a gentle smile.

"Oh, okay, phew. Just making sure that I wasn't gonna accidentally rock your world or something," Ariana said, miming wiping sweat off of her brow.

"So…were they in love, at least?"

Ariana stifled a smile. "Um, not exactly. Link and Nabooru go way back, and during his tryst with the Queen—it had a lot of ups and downs you know, with her being royalty and him being…not—he got really depressed and stuff when Zelda decided to break it off, so he kinda escaped here for a bit and uh, that's how you eventually came along."

Vera put her palms to the side of her head as she tried to process the barrage of new information. "So why was I put into an orphanage?"

"Well, from what I know, Link was arrested before you were born, and Nabooru…I'm not exactly sure why, but I don't think she felt like she could do it by herself, and apparently feared for your life if you stayed. I dunno, though, this is just what I've heard."

"Huh…" Vera looked down at her feet in contemplation.

"Hey," Ariana placed a hand on Vera's shoulder. "What matters is that it's all good now, right? You're a lot luckier than a hell of a lot of other kids are."

"True…" Vera nodded, suddenly remembering snippets of the other orphaned children she had met in her life—none of whom were living very well, if they were living at all.

The two girls sat in silence for a while, staring at their feet and trying to block out the cacophony of cries of pain that ebbed throughout the tent.

"Hey, kiddos,"

Both girls raised their eyes to meet Nabooru, who stood confidently over them. Despite her erect posture, however, her face held none of the determined spunkiness it usually did.

"You kids okay?" She asked, her voice croaking slightly with fatigue.

"Yeah, we're good," Ariana replied, smoothing back her ponytail. "Just kinda freaked out is all."

Nabooru nodded and rubbed the back of her neck. Vera noticed several fresh cuts and bruises on her previously flawless skin, and did her best to ignore the fact that one of her nipples was partially exposed.

"I'm sure. We lost a few soldiers, but we're in a lot better standing than we could have been, that's for sure. I suggest you girls get to bed pretty soon—they set up some makeshift sleeping quarters since many of the original structures have been ransacked pretty badly. It's gonna be a short night for you, Ariana. I'm gonna need you as part of the clean-up team. Vera, your father and I are discussing what the game plan is gonna be for tomorrow, but I think that tonight's events have pretty much proven that you're not safe here."

Vera's stomach dropped. "Are…are you coming?"

Nabooru smiled sadly at the girl and stroked her cheek. "No, baby. I'm afraid I can't leave my girls. I promise you, though…when everything is sorted out, you can stay and hang out with me as often as you want. I'll even be visiting you myself every once in a while!"

The threat of tears burned Vera's nose and eyes.

Nabooru's eyes widened. "No! Baby, don't cry!" She kneeled down and pulled her daughter into a firm embrace. "I'm not abandoning you," she whispered, the heat of her breath warming Vera's ear. "It's really hard for me too to let you go again, but your safety is what matters the most to me, and you're not safe with me here. Those things were looking for you, and it's only a matter of time before they strike again. You can't stay in one place for too long."

Vera swallowed hard. "I b-brought them?"

Gripping Vera's plushy cheeks in her hands, Nabooru pressed her forehead into the girl's. "Now don't you ever blame yourself," she murmured fiercely. "None of this is your fault. It is the fault of some very bad person who wants what you have and will do anything to get it."

The little girl wiped her nose with the back of her wrist and sniffed back her tears. "Y-yeah," she squeaked, nodding.

"Alright kiddo, now give me a _biiig_ hug. Do you wanna sleep in Mommy's room tonight?"

A warmth mostly unfamiliar to Vera spread throughout her chest and stomach, and the tears started again, only from a different origin. "Uh huh," she replied as a smile forced itself across her face.

The next morning felt more like a dream than anything to Vera. Muted voices swirled around her, and the hurried forms of random people appeared to pass through her like restless spirits.

Link and Nabooru stood close together, speaking in hushed tones as Vera pretended not to notice, still wrapped up in her bedsheets.

"Where are you going to go?" Nabooru asked, a hint of anxiety coloring her words.

Link grunted as he strapped on his bandoleer with a satisfying chink. "Well, I guess I'm going to have to pay Impa a visit to ask about this." He patted a rectangular package wrapped in a worn oilskin cloth that he had attached to his horse's saddle. "After that…not sure. But I'm thinking I'm going to have to get as far away from Hyrule as possible."

Nabooru swallowed audibly and looked down for a moment. "Yeah, probably a good idea. But, uh, be careful about that. I imagine they're still looking for you and all."

"I will. I'm just…eager to get it over with."

"I hear ya. Just, uh…could you maybe send me a letter or something when you guys head out? Let me know how the little one's doing and all?"

Link met Nabooru's eyes and offered a faint smile. "Of course," he said softly.

Nabooru's expression hardened as she straightened up. "Vera," she called steadily.

"Uh huh?" Vera asked, jumping out of the sheets.

"You be good for your old man here," she said, placing a hand on Link's shoulder. "He's not the easiest company to have, but he'll take good care of you."

Link cleared his throat and looked away to hide the blush that reddened his complexion.

"Okay," Vera said, throwing her arms around her mother. "I love you," she said meekly, her words muffled from her face being pressed into Nabooru's stomach.

Nabooru hesitated, involuntarily glancing up at Link, who watched the two with an unreadable expression.

"I…I love you too, you little gremlin," she said, tightening her grip around the child. "Now," she tapped Vera's back, "you best be going on your way, now! I'll see you soon, kiddo!"

"Right." Vera headed over to Link, who had already mounted the horse, and raised her arms to allow him to pull her up.

"Bye, Mama!"

"Bye, kiddo," Nabooru murmured to herself. "Make sure Link takes care of you out there…"

The sun was still burning strongly in the cloudless desert sky when Link made his first stop in a nearly hidden desert village.

"Are…are we here?" Vera asked as Link dismounted the horse and looped its reigns around a nearby post.

"No, but I'm a bit tired right now, and I'm sure you are too. Would you mind if we stopped here for the rest of the day?"

Vera shook her head, slightly surprised. Normally Link was the type to want to make as much distance as he could, not stopping to rest until he was either ready to drop or Vera bothered him enough.

"Uh n-no, I don't mind…are you okay?"

"Yeah," Link replied unconvincingly. "I'm fine."

He didn't look fine, however. He looked frighteningly pale, and his typically sharp eyes were heavily marked with dark circles.

As Vera hopped into his arms to get down from the horse, she noticed his brow was slick with a thin layer of cold sweat.

"You really don't look okay," she said flatly as he set her down.

Link pressed his lips together and shrugged nonchalantly. "I've been better, but I've been worse as well." He slowly made his way up some steps onto a wooden porch. "I just need a nap or something."

Vera furrowed her brow in concern, but said nothing as she followed him into the inn.

As soon as Link opened the door, the slender frame of a man lunged at him in an excited burst of energy.

"Why HELLOO my lovely patrons! How are you doing today? What kind of room would you like? We have some wonderful specials going on today—how long are you planning on staying?" he rubbed his hands together greedily like a praying mantis, his narrow eyes pulled into a squint to make room for his toothy grin.

Link leaned back a bit to avoid being inadvertently headbutted by the inn-keeper. "We're just staying for the night. If you have your standard room, that'd be fine."

The man nodded eagerly, and Vera made a mental note at how the man's hairline suspiciously slid about the top of his head as he did so.

"Of course, of course!" he chirped, sashaying back behind the main desk. Flipping through several rows of keys hung behind him, he selected one and placed it in front of Link.

"That'll be 150 rupees, please!" he exclaimed, swallowing some extra saliva that bubbled out of the corners of his mouth.

Link stared at him disbelievingly. "150 rupees? For one night?" he asked, arching one of his brows.

The innkeeper chuckled nervously. "I know it sounds a bit high, but we have the best prices in the region!"

Link scoffed. "You're the only inn in the region," he muttered under his breath. Turning back towards the door, he placed a hand on Vera's back, urging her forward. "That's fine, then. We'll just camp out. C'mon, Vera."

After about two steps, the man called a desperate "Wait!" Link stopped, and Vera noticed a small smirk on his face.

Link looked back at him and raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

"We may have some better prices, actually!" The painful looking smile persisted, though there was noticeably more strain involved in keeping it.

"Oh?" Link asked, placing a hand on his hip.

"Yes, yes! I do have a room for 75 rupees for the night, if that's more towards your price range."

Link approached the desk again. "I suppose that would work, yeah."

As soon as the pair made their way up to the room, Link collapsed on one of the twin beds, summoning up a cloud of dust.

"Egh," Vera remarked, coughing. "I can't believe he was gonna charge 150 rupees for this hole."

Link didn't respond, however, and remained sprawled out across the dusty comforter.

"Hey, uh…you okay?" she asked, crawling on the bed next to him.

Though he looked quite pale, his cheeks glowed a feverish shade of pink. His chest rose and fell in short, shallow breaths.

"Yeah, you don't look so good."

Vera tentatively placed a small hand on his damp forehead, pulling it back briskly.

"Whoa…you're burning up!"

Link gave a slight groan. "It'll pass," he said weakly.

She shook her head vehemently. "You have a fever. Most times when kids got fevers at the orphanage and the Headmistress refused to get them medicine, they didn't make it. I heard that the older you get, the more dangerous fevers are. I'm gonna get you some medicine."

Link reached out a hand and wrapped it around her forearm. "No you're not. I'm going to take a nap and then I'll be fine. I just need…I just need a nap." His voice was barely perceptible by the time he finished his sentence.

Vera got up and straightened out her blouse. "I'm gonna get you some medicine," she repeated with a firmness he had not heard before.

This time Link didn't respond.

"Okay, I'm gonna be right back," Vera said, pausing to see if he would say something.

He didn't.

Sighing, she left the room to go explore the town a bit.

There wasn't much to the town—it was more of a village, really. Most of the place's inhabitants lounged lazily on porches, rocking back and forth in rocking chairs and watching her distrustfully.

Finding what appeared to be a pharmacy, Vera eagerly pressed inside, passing through a curtain of shimmery beads.

_Whoa…_

The entire place was dimly lit, the windows having been covered by sheer red curtains. Dark red velvet covered the floor, and various lamps illuminated the room with an exotic glow.

"Who's there?" screeched an old woman's voice from behind the counter.

"Uh, j-just me! I need some medicine, please!"

"Well no shit you need some medicine if yer botherin me like this. What kind of medicine?"

A frail woman waddled out from behind the counter. Her hair was matted into several graying locks held back by a kind of bandanna, and her extensively wrinkled and sun-tanned skin was barely covered by an old sun dress.

"It's for…um…"

"WHAT."

"MY FATHER! It's for my father. He's really sick. He feels really hot and all he wants to do is sleep."

"Hmm." The woman let out a growling noise as she rubbed her chin with a bony finger. "How long has this been going on?" she demanded gruffly.

Vera thought for a moment. "Well, last night he got cut pretty badly with a sword, and he seems to have gotten worse since then."

The woman chortled. "I'm not even goin' ta ask about the context fer that. Let me see 'im. I'll see what I can do."

Vera led the woman up the creaky stairs of the inn into the room where she and Link were staying. Link lay sprawled in his original position that she left him in.

The woman grabbed one of his long ears and stretched it out. "HEY YOUNG MAN. YOU ALIVE?" she screeched.

Link furrowed his brows slightly and weakly tried to turn away.

"Yeh, he's alive. Alright, now lemme see this wound." She immediately went for his belt, unbuckling it with a directness that was almost frightening.

"My goodness, can't I at least have your name first?" Link mumbled.

"Aha, Mr. Fairy has a sense of humor still I see," She replied with a dry laugh. "Arlene's the name."

He gave a low groan and fell quiet again as she worked his tunic off, then raised his undershirt enough to expose the gash, which had now developed an unsavory purple halo and was fairly swollen.

"AGH!" Arlene gave a yodel-like cry. "Yer crazy for not takin care o'this when you shoulda! No wonder yer burnin' up!"

She reached into her oversized carpet bag and pulled out several tangles of what looked like leather belts.

"Hey, half-n-half, I'mma need you to help me tie him up."

Vera's eyes popped open in astonishment. "Tie him up?"

"Yeh tie him up! You got a hearin' problem or somethin' with those bat-ears of yours? C'mere!"

Vera ground her teeth in annoyance and did as she was told, accepting one of the tangles of belts.

"Now yer gonna bind his wrists together with this loop, and loop the other end to the bed frame. Make sure it's tight, but not so tight that you cut off cerkalation."

The young girl nodded slowly and shyly looped the belt around Link's clammy wrists. Arlene did the same around his ankles.

"Alright, tie 'im up good to the bed now, I don't want him goin' off and attackin' me once I start treatment."

A knot tightened in the pit of Vera's stomach. What exactly would this treatment entail? She looked at Link to see if he wore any expression of anxiety or fear, but he still had the same passive countenance, albeit one with a hint of discomfort.

"Okay now." Arlene pulled out a white cloth and tied it loosely around his neck before placing it as a gag in his mouth. "Can't have 'im wakin' up the other tenants," she mumbled before removing a large surgical knife along with a few mysterious bottles of differently tinted liquids from her back.

Vera stifled a gasp as she watched Arlene pass the knife over a flame until the blade glowed hot pink.

"Alright. Here we go!"

Vera pressed her hands over her eyes moments before she saw the hot blade make contact with Link's wound.

This did not drown out Link's muffled scream, or the sound of the metal buckled clanging against the iron bed frame as he strained against his restraints, however.

"Damn, for such a petite man you sure have some strength!" She heard Arlene say, grunting with effort.

This seemed to go on forever, until Arlene finally said, "There. The wound is caut'rized! Now I just gotta give 'im a shot of anti-b'otics and he should be feelin' much better in a few days."

When Vera finally opened her eyes, she saw an even more exhausted and sweat-drenched Link, flopped on his back like an abandoned ragdoll.

"So how're y'all gonna pay me?"

Vera gave a small yip and looked up at Arlene with a panicked expression. She hadn't thought about money.

Arlene's bony fingers gripped her hips. "Y'all don't have no money?" she asked gruffly, her wrinkled lips hanging loosely into a frown.

Vera didn't respond, and casted an embarrassed gaze at her feet.

"Hmmph. Well, since I'm a good person, and since I'm willin' to help out a fellow half-n-half, I'll allow you to pay off yer debt by workin' in my pharmacy until yer daddy recovers. You better do _everything_ I say, though, and you'd better do some damn good work!"

The girl didn't know whether to be relieved or scared, though in truth she supposed she was both. Either way, it looked like she didn't have a choice, and based off of Link's condition, it looked like they would be here for a while.

Letting out a huge sigh, Vera met Arlene's eyes with a determined face. "Yes, ma'am."


End file.
